Crafty Supermarket goes VIRTUAL!
What exactly is Crafty Supermarket?
Crafty Supermarket is an indie craft show that began almost 10 years ago with just 20 vendors at Northside Tavern, and has expanded to become a biannual event featuring 100+ makers, held in Cincinnati's historic Music Hall.
And what is the Virtual Maker Market?
This Friday, May 22, we'll kickoff the weekend with Happy Hour from 4 – 8 pm and continue into Saturday from 11 am – 5 pm, with makers going live for 20 minute time slots on the Virtual Maker Market event page on Facebook. 30 makers will be going live on Facebook over the two segments, talking about their business, showing their products, giving a tour of their studio space, interviewing their pets, or whatever they'd like to share!
Also, throughout the month of May, vendors have done a daily takeover of the Crafty Supermarket Instagram page. The Instagram takeovers will continue through the end of May, and you can browse all the makers and shop online anytime! All in all, over 50 small businesses are participating!
How did this happen?
Pop Rocket Creations (that's us!) had signed on to design the spring 2020 poster. As Crafty Supermarket's spring 2020 event was approaching, it started to become clear that the May event would definitely canceled due to the Covid-19 pandemic. As coronavirus wreaked havoc on every level, we reached out to Chris, the Crafty organizer, to see if the spring market would be postponed and if we would need to update the dates on the event poster for a future market. With every upcoming market around the country being canceled, we were determined to make something happen for all of the small businesses involved. Putting our three brains together, we ran with the idea of creating an online market to replace the in-person May market. Several weeks of Zoom meetings later, we've launched the daily Instagram takeovers which will culminate in the weekend virtual market on Facebook, wrapping up the month with several more Instagram takeovers.
Why is Pop Rocket Creations involved?
We created the 2020 spring market poster, and we did the 2019 holiday tote bag design, and we really wanted to help make this event a success, somehow, despite all the odds. So, we partnered with Chris to be co-hosts of the event, and we helped with the planning, scheduling, and vendor guidelines. We re-designed the original poster to fit the new, branded virtual event by creating a set of graphics based on the new design to be used in different scenarios on websites and social media. And of course we're also one of the participating vendors!
This has been a major collaborative effort (and experiment!) to help expand exposure, boost sales, and benefit the creative community during this unprecedented time. Big thanks to Chris for her passion for the crafty community – she's kept Crafty Supermarket thriving and her support made this virtual market possible! **HIGH FIVE EMOJI**
Please tune in to Facebook and Instagram, shop small, shop local, and share on social media and with your friends and family! Your support is SO greatly appreciated!
