Purple Tuesday was created and co-ordinated by Purple. Its original aim was to raise awareness of the £249 billion Purple Pound and the power of disabled customers and their families.
The first Purple Tuesday took place last November (13 November) and was promoted as the UK’s first accessible shopping day.
Purple had expected the participation of about 50 retailers in year one, but it didn’t quite work out like that!
Some key headline statistics:
- 17 bespoke resources were made available to participating organisations including an access audit template, customer service advice, top tips for the run up to Christmas and a training (3 minute) film for staff in participating organisations
- 13th November saw #PurpleTuesday top-trending at number 4 on Twitter
- Increase in @PurpleTuesdayUK Twitter followers, from 300 to more than 1700
- More than 10,500 unique visits to www.purpletuesday.org.uk across Purple Tuesday week (7th – 14th November), peaking at more than 5,500 unique users on 13th November
- Over 325 pieces of broadcast or print coverage generating more than 1 million views online alone. Live and pre-recorded feature interviews with BBC News 24, BBC Breakfast, ITV News, Radio 5 Live Wake up to Money, Channel 5 news and the Financial Times and Guardian
- Significant coverage in the trade press including Retail Week – an opinion piece from the Executive Editor noting “a blessing not only for disabled people but for consumers in general”
The photograph attached to this article shows Mike Adams, Purple’s CEO, standing in front of Piccadilly Circus as it went Purple.
The day itself had a longer lasting impact. Over 1,000 pledges were made by participating organisations to change their practice and/or service. Activities include:
- The formalisation of quiet hours
- Training modules in disability created and promoted to all staff
- Access audits and action plans
- Online accessibility audits and action plans
- Inclusion of disability related questions in day to day surveys and feedback with both customers and staff
- Promotion of hidden impairment: adoption of the ‘Every disability is not visible’ signage
- Improved wayfaring
- Commitment to inclusive disability in marketing and wider advertising
Over the coming weeks a number of actions will take place to continue the momentum:
- Mike will be travelling to meet and thank the winners from the social media activities held on the day.
- A picture gallery will be created on purpletuesday.org.uk to celebrate the successes and best moments across the UK.
- Purple is creating a rolling blog for participating organisations to share their stories and let us know the pledges made have been put in place.
And we will be announcing details of Purple Tuesday 2019 very soon!
