THE Malvern Gazette's #VeryMalvern campaigns, aimed at boosting local independent retailers over the festive season, has been a great success, say traders.

The campaign uses postings on social media sites Facebook and Twitter, linked with the hashtag #VeryMalvern, to promote small businesses in and around the town during the run-up to Christmas.

Sarah Grout, of Malvern Party and Balloons, in Church Walk, said: "I think anything we can do to support the town is good.

"Social media working hand-in-hand with printed media is a recipe for success. All forms of marketing need to be seamless these days."

She said that the business, which offers products as diverse as party decorations, balloons, fancy dress, life-size cardboard cut-outs, piñatas, tableware, masks, and pocket-money toys for loot bags and stocking fillers, did well over the festive season.

"Christmas was on a par with last year, but New Year was exceptional. It's not only Christmas and New Year parties, but people who have a birthday at this time of year tend to push the boat out a bit too.

"We were well supported by local hotels and restaurants, and on New Year's Eve alone we inflated more than 1,000 balloons."

Lee Harrison of Malvern World Travel, at Somers Park Road, said: "The #VeryMalvern campaign was active in the run-up to Christmas, but could it not be run all the year round?

"For small businesses which do not have a High Street presence like ourselves, working from home, it's a valuable way of getting our names out in front of the public."

It's not only in Malvern itself that the #VeryMalvern campaign attracted attention.

Don Bridges, of the Pudding Shop, Backfields, Upton, who posted frequently as Mr Christmas Pudding, said: "We've had our best-ever Christmas, with web-related orders up 70 per cent, and the visitors to the shop up as well. We shifted a huge number of Christmas puddings, several thousand, and I'd like to feel that local web promotions such as #VeryMalvern plated a part in that."

"If #VeryMalvern comes back next year, we will be jumping in on day one."