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MARDA LOOP BIA MARKETING SUPPORT & INFORMATION

The Marda Loop BIA represents and supports over 200 businesses that are the heart of Marda Loop: Where life connects.

These resources are for Marda Loop BIA business

For information and resources on Marda Loop marketing and promotions, see below and contact marketing contractor Dakota Kidby of SocialCentric Inc., dkidby@socialcentricinc.com or the Marda Loop BIA office info@visitmardaloop.com

If you are a business in the BIA, make sure you are registered with us! Register here: https://www.visitmardaloop.com/business-registration/

Marda Marketing Basics

Marda Loop BIA businesses can participate in our promotions, events and other opportunities. We promote businesses regularly on our social channels, monthly public e-newsletter, events, promotional programs and more. Click the tab below and learn how to get involved in our advertising, marketing and event programming.

Promotions, events and other opportunities

Marda Loop BIA businesses can participate in our promotions, events and other opportunities:

  • We promote businesses regularly on our social channels:
    • We are @visitmardaloop on Tiktok, Facebook, Instagram and X.
    • Make sure you tag us in your posts using @visitmardaloop and use our hashtags #intheloop #myymarda #meetmeinmarda #mardaloopyyc #mardaloop.
  • Our monthly public e-newsletter goes to over 1300 subscribers and growing. Sign up for our public email newsletter here
  • To be profiled in the Marda Loop e-newsletter or social media posts, fill out the MARKETING FEATURE FORM on this page or contact our Marketing Coordinator Dakota Kidby at dkidby@socialcentricinc.com
  • Join our Marda Loop Gift Card program. Over 30 businesses are already signed up.
  • Our neighbours at the Marda Loop Communities Association have a member discount program that businesses can join. Find out more at this link.
  • The Marda Gras Street Festival is our signature event, attracting  about 40,000 people on the second Sunday in August.  Participation is very inexpensive for our member businesses, and we also have sponsorship opportunities. Marda Gras is Sunday August 10, 2025. Vendor registration is now open; sign up as a “Marda Loop BIA Business” at:  mardagras.ca.
  • We also do promotions and events like Eggfest at Easter, Spook the Loop at Halloween, Spirit of the Loop to kick off Christmas, Sip and Support promotions and more.  To find out more and to be part of these, sign up via the participation forms on this page.
  • If you are signed up on our list, you will receive information on how to participate!
  • We try to provide opportunities for all businesses to participate in our promotional efforts.
  • Contact us to get involved in our advertising, marketing and event programming.
  • See if we have an upcoming meet-and-greet for business members

Egg Fest Participation

Our premier Easter event, Egg Fest, is happens on the Saturday before Easter every year.

Egg Fest is an annual event in Marda Loop where our businesses hand out chocolate eggs to hundreds of families who come down to the area just for this occasion! It’s a great way to meet new customers and increase brand awareness.  Check out the EGGFEST sponsorship package

Egg Fest Participation Form

Egg Fest Participation 2025

Our Business will be an Egg Hunt Stop:(Required)
Business Address(Required)
Contact Name(Required)
Can you be texted at this phone number?
Does your business have a street facing window?
*The BIA will be providing some kind of visual to display your participation.
Are you having troubles with this form? Something else we didn't cover? Send an email to events@visitmardaloop.com.
This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

“Sip and Support Local” Event Series

This is an occasional promotion that showcases the best of Marda Loop. We particularly boost Sip and Support around the holiday shopping season. Please complete the following form to confirm your participation and help us create a tailored agenda for each weekend.

Sip & Support Local Form

SPOOK THE LOOP

Spook the Loop happens on the Saturday before Halloween. We’re now looking for businesses to get involved in being our “candy stops” so kids can trick or’ treat around the Loop. This is one of our most popular events with families visiting businesses all over Marda Loop. If you want to get involved, sign up below and our event coordinator will ensure you get candy and promotional items.

Spook the Loop Form

Spook the Loop Sign-up

Address of Business:(Required)
Contact Person for Spook The Loop:(Required)
Will you provide your own candy/treats?(Required)

Will your staff be encouraged to dress in costume?(Required)

This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

Culinaire World Taste Tour – May 2025

Culinaire Magazine and the MLBIA are delighted to invite you to take part in a culinary adventure – our “World Taste Tour” 11th annual Culinaire Treasure Hunt on Sunday, May 25th! We’re looking for 30 food and beverage businesses in Marda Loop to take part in a culinary adventure like no other!

As we have a limited number of participating locations available, please let us know no later than March 13th if you can participate. 

See the Full Event Details and Submit Your Application >

On Sunday May 25, 30 teams of food enthusiasts will visit selected destinations on a culinary-inspired Treasure Hunt. It will involve solving riddles and clues, and searching for/sampling food and beverages in some of the finest establishments in Marda Loop.

This culinary adventure is an all-day event. Registered participants will be given a Treasure Hunt Clue List, ID card and a crossword. The Clue List will have riddles and trivia questions to be solved for them to reveal which locations to visit where they’ll talk to you and your staff to gain an understanding of your business and come away with a word that will be the answer to a crossword clue. The Treasure Hunt ends at 4:00 pm latest, when the completed crosswords will be turned in, and a draw of correct crosswords will be made to determine the winners of the prizes.

Culinaire is only inviting a limited number of food and beverage businesses to participate, and we’d love YOU to be a part of this fun and exciting day! There will be promotional exposure on the Culinaire website, in Culinaire magazine and on television and radio, and across all the Culinaire + Marda Loop social media platforms; as well as to the participants in the Culinary Treasure Hunt.

If you have questions, please don’t hesitate to contact organizer Linda by email to linda@culinairemagazine.ca or at 403-870-9802

As a participating location, we require you to fill out the following form: 

Contact Name(Required)
Example: “Shuck an oyster” or “Guess the flavours of these wines” or try three cubes of cheese and identify which is cheddar, which is the gouda and which comte” or similar
Example: “This establishment doubles as a social house and beauty house.” (Distilled Beauty House and Coffee Bar)
Please confirm that you will be able to supply each participant with the following:(Required)
a) a food or beverage sample that ties into the event (in addition to the "task") - i.e., you will shuck an oyster and then get to sample our baked oyster OR, dress it with mignonette and eat it
b) a take-away item such as another sample or discount (example: for our cheese business, perhaps 15% off their next order or a small wedge of cheese).

Stay informed with the Marda Loop BIA community newsletter and social media channels. Aimed at visitors, neighbours and customers of Marda Loop, the e-newsletter is a monthly e-newsletter with about 1,000 subscribers as of mid-2023. We also have Facebook, Twitter, TikTok and Instagram pages totalling more than 10k Calgary-based audiences as of mid-2023. Both outlets profile Marda Loop BIA businesses, promote events, include Marda Loop history bites and include Main Street updates too!

Get involved
Signing up for the newsletter: Sign Up Today!

Follow us on social media:

and tag us using #visitmardaloop so we can repost your content!

To be included in the newsletter or on social media as a business, access feature forms or contact our marketing manager Dakota Kidby at: dkidby@socialcentricinc.com

Market Information

About the people of Marda Loop

Demographic information for 1800m around the BIA area (map below) is available on a dashboard here or as a PDF download available here.

Community profiles for Altadore, South Calgary, Garrison Woods, Richmond and other nearby communities are available here.

Statscan 2021 data show that the Marda Loop area was the one of the fastest growing areas of Calgary, behind only Beltline/Downtown and new suburban communities, growing by 10.6 % in 5 years, 2016-2021. (The relevant census tract includes all of the BIA area, Altadore, most of South Calgary, the south part of Richmond and south Elbow Park, but not Garrison Woods.) Livewire story with map here.

Map of the 1800m Market Area

What do our visitors say?

The Marda Loop BIA contracted a market research study, conducted by Stone Olafson, in 2021, including online and in-person surveys of Marda Loop visitors.

“The Story on One Page” Summary

Full Survey Report

Marda Loop Gift Card

The Marda Card is new area-wide gift card used by consumers visiting the Loop to purchase goods and services at the businesses that sign-up! It is available as an e-card or a plastic card.

Reasons your business should get involved >

Tips for Business during Main Streets Construction

Do you have any other ideas? Let us know at info@visitmardaloop.com

Connect

Communicate

  • Place signage outside your storefront letting people know that you’re open.
  • Post on social media that you’re open and how to get to you (for some messaging on alternate routes to the area, check out our Marda Main Streets page)
  • Do an email blast to your customer list encouraging them to come down during construction (work on building a customer email list if you don’t have one)
  • Point out available parking, including underground parking and less-known spots.
  • Check out the Resources section of this page for printable signage, images and social squares related to finding parking and coming to the area.
  • If you have parking that your workers normally use, consider making it available for visitors instead. It might be a bit more inconvenient for us, but customers come first.

Promote

  • Put on “hardhat” specials deals enticing consumers during construction
    • e.g. coupons with “open during construction” messaging
  • Offer specials for construction crews – they are new customers in the area
  • Talk to your business neighbours and share information.
    • Are there ways to collaborate with other businesses that help all of you?
    • Can you do shared promotions?
  • Marda Loop business owners should patronize each other’s businesses.
    • Do you offer specials for Marda Loop business staff?  Do they know?
  • Pivot to doing more online sales

Plan Ahead

  • Plan to budget and staff accordingly if you know a certain month is going to be particularly disruptive based on the construction schedule.
  • See if you can get a break from your landlord. Building owners will benefit from streetscape improvements for a long time, but due to construction you could use a hand right now.

Positivity

  • When talking publicly about the area stay positive, and encourage folks to come down and support local business. Construction disruption is going to happen, but we want people to come down not be scared away. And it’s going to be great when it’s all done!

RESOURCES & DOWNLOADS

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