Community Fund – Greener Leith – June Update

Greener Leith Local Shopping App

We are delighted to announce that Greener Leith have recently been awarded funding to develop a phone app which can be used as a virtual loyalty card for the benefit of local shops and services. Together with ‘independent stirrer’ the Broughton Spurtle – based in adjacent and partly overlapping parts of north/central Edinburgh – and Edinburgh technology company Tigatag, we were successful in obtaining some £44K from NESTA, an independent charity with a mission to help organisations bring great ideas to life.

At a time when independent businesses are under enormous pressure due to the recession, competition from chain stores and tram work disruption, Greener Leith hopes the app will be a shot in the arm for local shops and services that will help businesses in Leith and Broughton to promote their products using the most up-to-date technology.  Having worked on local shopping campaigns in the past with more conventional marketing methods – remember the WE LOVE LEITH shopping bags? – it’s refreshing to see that small local communities can take advantage of mobile technology and be on a level playing field with world-wide on-line services.

In a parallel thread, it will also allow users to receive and post geographically relevant news and information on their mobile phones, turning it into an instant local news provider.

The Greener Leith Local Shopping App should be available in Spring 2013 and if successful, has the potential to support the development of similar community news projects throughout the country.