The Muskoka Lakes Chamber of Commerce got the television treatment when CTV shot a commercial in late May for the Chamber’s latest innovative effort to support local business: ShopMuskokaLakes.ca

Shot in Utterson at Three Mile Lake and Port Carling at the locks, the commercial features a sample of businesses that appear on ShopMuskokaLakes.ca from all around Muskoka Lakes, such as Pure Muskoka in Bala and Muskoka Docksocks in Mortimer’s Point.

Live Edge Forest and Muskoka Chair Company  (the original Muskoka Chair company) in Port Carling were among the businesses filmed and photographed on Thursday, with a focus on the Candice Sheriff and Dan Alonso Live Edge Forest/TREEO story. Candice narrates the TV spot. Each representative from the businesses were asked to pose with their products, and talk about what makes them unique.

Chamber Executive Directory Norah Fountain is hoping this first TV spot will turn into a series to tell more “meet the maker” stories. “I think using a story telling approach to these ads really shows ShopMuskokaLakes.ca is not just an online shopping experience, but that it’s a community of people supporting each other. That’s what our support local project is all about: we want to lift up all our local businesses, especially those who’ve been locked down, and include all Chamber Members as we continue to build our platform.” Next phases for ShopMuskokaLakes.ca include adding dining gift certificates to support restaurants and ‘Buy and Book’ tourism experiences.

The commercial premiered at the Muskoka and Parry Sound IMPACT Awards on May 27, the day before it began airing on CTV. “It was a perfect fit,” adds Fountain, “as our motto is, ‘Make a local impact. Shop local first.’ We’re driven by the idea of taking on Amazon. After all, why buy products like these from Amazon, when you can buy them more directly, at less expense to the vendor, on our local online shop?”

From left to right: Jan of Muskoka Docksocks, Carson of Muskoka Chair Company, Norah of Muskoka Lakes Chamber and Emma of Pure Muskoka

“The chamber is a proud sponsor of the IMPACT Awards,’ continues Fountain, “and we want to thank Stuart Morley of the Parry Sound Muskoka Community Network (PMCN) network for inviting us to launch our multi vendor shop local project and video at the awards. The IMPACT Awards are all about innovation, and our online shop provides more ways to shop local than any other multi vendor marketplace that we know of – and we’ve looked at ones from across North America.”

“It’s also through PMCN’s generous support that we can launch shopmuskokalakes.ca across Ontario on CTV,” she says.

Blog by Natalie MacMillan

Did you know…you don’t have to already have an online store to be showcased on ShopMuskokaLakes.ca? Some of our vendors have never had a web presence and this is their first time putting their products for sale online. We want to help our stores and artisans sell online for the first time, and maybe exclusively, on our local community online shop. We even have stores who don’t want to put their products on line but are displaying their items anyway on ShopMuskokaLakes.ca for the marketing exposure.

Your Chamber is committed to driving local business. Ask how you can be involved. If you can’t be a vendor, you can be an advertiser on our site and/or a sponsor to support this Support Local project.

Want to watch our first 30-second TV spot in our Meet the Makers series now? We’ve embedded it here and please Share it from the Chamber YouTube Channel at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCOZG_GVOhFqTlH1vYr3dBJg