- Over £45m has been locked into towns/cities through Town & City Gift Cards, with sales up 115% on 2024, aligning to gift cards trends including support for local
- The BIG Christmas Giveback encourages nominations for local heroes, including charities, community groups and individuals
Fintech Miconex has launched its 2025 national festive campaign, The BIG Christmas Giveback, in Scotland as part of its ongoing commitment to powering local communities.
Running across its network of Town & City Gift Card programmes in Scotland, and Scotland Loves Local Gift Cards delivered alongside Scotland’s Towns Partnership, The BIG Christmas Giveback asks for nominations for people or organisations who have a positive impact on their community.
The person or organisation with the most nominations will win a £1000 Town & City Gift Card or Scotland Loves Local Gift Card of their choice, with one person who nominated them winning a £500 Town & City Gift Card or Scotland Loves Local Gift Card. Miconex is running similar competitions in Ireland, the USA and Canada.
Over £45 million has been spent through Miconex’s local gift cards to date, with over 20,000 businesses participating, and 2025 sales up 115% year on year. The mix of independent and national businesses which accept the local gift cards, including shops, restaurants, salons, hotels, attractions and services, makes them unique in the sector. Between 50% and 100% of cards are redeemed with independent businesses.
Gift Card & Voucher Association (GCVA) data from September 2025 has shown that gift card sales reached £1.98bn among members in the first 6 months of 2025, showing 11.8% year on year growth. Digital gift cards surged almost 50% year on year, while multi-choice gift cards like Town & City Gift Cards and Scotland Loves Local Gift Cards expanded by 37%.
The GCVA also reported that UK consumers are increasingly seeing gift cards as a medium for supporting local businesses, with 32.7% in July 2025 saying they purchase gift cards to support businesses they like, more than double the 14.3% who said this in July 2024.
Colin Munro, CEO of Miconex, said: “The Town & City Gift Card and Scotland Loves Local Gift Card initiatives are transforming communities by diverting online spend back into local economies, allowing towns and cities to take their share of the booming gift card market. For Christmas 2025, we’ve distilled the power of local gift cards into a campaign that has community at its core, so we can recognise the individuals, charities, community groups and organisations who also power our communities. We’ll be sharing the nomination stories as they come in, shining a light on people, places and communities.”
Nominate a person or organisation in The BIG Christmas Giveback at: www.lovelocalwin.co.uk and watch the video.
