Ma’assal campaign promotes local businesses and products

In December 2020, as a response to the impact of COVID‑19 on local businesses in Jordan, Mercy Corps, under the Leadership and Community Development program funded by UKaid, launched the Ma’assal campaign to support local businesses and products.

During the last three months, the campaign’s activities have enhanced public awareness of the local products and businesses through online and offline campaigns.

The online campaign was implemented through social media posts (Facebook, Twitter and Instagram), spreading key messages and success stories of businesses under the hashtag “Ma’assal,” which roughly translates to ‘locally produced, or products of local origin.’ In addition, Mercy Corps worked directly with influencers, activists and thought leaders to encourage consumers to purchase local products and to support local businesses.

The offline campaign was implemented in coordination with the Amman Chamber of Industry and the Greater Amman Municipality. The Amman Chamber of Industry worked with the program to distribute fliers, roll-ups and other advertising products with the campaign’s hashtags and slogan in an effort to highlight local products in five hypermarkets across Amman. The campaign also displayed information about the campaign on the exterior of five public buses to encourage the people from the community to buy local products. In addition, The Greater Amman Municipality further supported the campaign through advertisements about the campaign displayed near ten tunnels and bridges.

More than 130 local businesses engaged and participated in the campaign. The campaign culminated with a Ma’assal week, during which a number of local businesses created promotional codes offering discounts to the public to motivate the community to personally engage with local businesses and to buy local products.

To support these efforts, the Ma’assal campaign provided the local businesses with giveaways such as hoodies, notebooks and stickers for distribution to consumers in an effort to increase their engagement with the campaign and the ‘buy local’ movement.

The Ma’assal campaign is part of the Leadership and Community Development program funded by FCDO (UKaid) and implemented through Mercy Corps Jordan. Through this program, Mercy Corps is implementing a wide range of economic activities including apprenticeships, creating 250 job opportunities across five governorates (Amman, Zarqa, Irbid, Karak, Aqaba). It is also supporting 25 businesses affected by the COVID‑19 crisis through small grants.

Funded by FCDO