Ennis businesses looking ahead

NEXT year’s Christmas festivities in Ennis could be bigger and better than ever before as the town hopes to capitalise on its recent success in RTÉ’s The Business Christmas Towns Competition.
While Ennis did not win, the town made the shortlist in the competition, which recognised places that have created the most innovative ways to attract business. The town’s efforts were featured on The Business’ broadcast before Christmas, when the winners were announced.
Ennis entered the competition after businesses from Ennis Chamber and the Ennis Development Forum came together to launch their Shop Local Campaign. The campaign included a three-minute viral Christmas video, street radio and a visit by Santa to the town.
The Christmas video has so far reached more than 22,000 hits and continues to grow in popularity.
According to Johnny Flynn of the Ennis Development Forum, “It was great to get into the finals of this competition and reach the last three towns in our category. We are now well on our way to having 25,000 views of the Ennis video, which would bring us to the population of the town, which is amazing.
“Both Killarney and Dun Laoghaire, who were in the large town category with us, already have a Christmas festival running for a number of years. We have learned that if we are going to continue on with this, and I hope we do, that we can organise a bigger festival in the town for next year and try and improve every year. The feedback we have been getting on what we have been doing has been great. People like the idea of businesses recognising their custom.”