amex x pandemic recovery

When the pandemic hit many ad campaigns were shattered and businesses left scrambling. I served as the Social lead and guided the American Express team through daily social listening briefings and provided strategic recommendations for potential CSR relief efforts. Amex’s decade-old Shop Small initiative connecting Card Members with independent businesses with the cornerstone of these relief efforts.

With so many neighborhood spots shutting their doors for good, we needed to re-connect consumers with the small businesses still fighting to stay open. Our Amex Shop Small campaign was a social and human-first effort to rally support behind the small businesses that make a neighborhood feel like home while providing consumers with informative and meaningful content grounded in today’s realities.

ENCOURAGING COMMUNITY CONNECTION

To sustain interest and action, we then expanded the campaign on a local level to 10 major cities through targeted media. Using eye-catching postcard imagery, we encouraged users in those cities to give shoutouts for local businesses. On Instagram, we created templates that utilized the platform’s brand new Small Business Stickers.

Using these user-generated suggestions alongside our own community research and outreach, we featured more than 50 small businesses in localized creative.