The Harlequin Shopping Centre in Watford has a strong offering for the youth market but was not reaching this audience. Primal was hired to develop a means of reaching this age group and developed a stand-alone youth brand, Brand Union.

Given the fact that this audience is notoriously hard to reach through traditional media channels, a predominantly digital strategy was developed through a dedicated micro-site www.harlequinbrandunion.com supported by in-centre activity and events as well as media partnerships with Watford's regional radio station Mercury FM and the regional paper the Watford Observer.

The Brand Union website has over 4,000 members who each receive a monthly EDM from Brand Union with offers, vouchers and news.

RESULT

Total weekly visits to The Harlequin from the age group 16-24 years old have increased from 23% to 29%. Visits 3-5 times a week went up 3% year-on-year and dwell time increased 4%.

Primal was hired by IKEA to manage a number of events surrounding the launch of IKEA Southampton with the aim of promoting brand presence and generating awareness through guerrilla style activity focused on the surrounding catchment areas.

Primal developed a number of different experiential elements to create maximum impact and exposure including a Mobile Showroom, Giant LACK Table and Takeaway Roomsets.

Primal’s activity culminated in a launch event which aimed to create excitement and intrigue around the biggest store opening to hit the South West in decades. The event looked to unite IKEA staff and the public as well as building impact, entertaining the crowds and creating a party atmosphere both inside and outside the store.

RESULTS

Consumer footfall figures on the opening day hit 17,000 rising daily to a figure of 170,000 in the first week. Total product sales on opening day exceeded targets by 10% with penetration of brand awareness in target towns reaching over 73%.

Network Rail owns all UK train stations and retains operational control of 18 of the largest stations, representing a staggering 944 million visits per annum from an affluent customer profile base (73% are ABC1) and challenged Primal to find a way to debunk the myth that Network Rail is ‘just concerned with trains’ and to reinforce its retail credentials in order to educate, ignite and secure commercial interest in Network Rail’s retail opportunities.

Primal developed the idea of ‘Retail Connections’ and worked with its sister agency BWP on a three fold approach that avoided the high cost of above-the-line advertising. The campaign combined a mix of digital marketing, direct mail, a short film, exhibitions, conferences and face-to-face presentations, culminating in a ‘Retail Connections’ event.

A save the date eDM was sent out, followed by an official invitation and then a reminder eDM. The event itself was an early evening event that showcased some of Network Rail’s new developments and had short speeches from Network Rail executives and a film comprising interviews with existing retailers. A Retail Connections pack was given to each of the guests.

RESULTS

The campaign and the ‘Retail Connections’ event resulted in deals with retailers such as Subway, Pret A Manger and Nandos. 204 guests out of a total of 326 invitations attended the event – a response rate of 62.5%.

As Birmingham’s premier out of town shopping park, The Fort wanted to make a big impression on Birmingham’s young and style conscious shoppers over the summer, tempting them out of the city centre and highlighting its impressive fashion line up.

Primal developed a four-week ‘Real Fashion’ campaign, launched with an exclusive performance from X Factor finalist and alternative fashion icon, Diana Vickers. 

Two weeks of free makeovers, goody bags and personal shopper experiences ran on-site leading to the fashion finale; the Fort’s Real Fashion catwalk show hosted by GMTV’s celeb stylist – Mark Heyes, and complete with ‘real people’ selected by the Fort’s stylist in the weeks running up to the event.

RESULTS

Visitor numbers at The Fort peaked during the first week of the campaign, representing the highest number of visitors that year so far, and a near 13% increase on the previous week. Retailers across the Park reported increased shopper numbers and some reported sales up by over 10%. The Fort’s websitereceived an average 42.2% visitor increase throughout the four week campaign with near 5,000 visits generated though online advertising and £15,000 of press coverage was placed to support the event.

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The Chimes in Uxbridge is a premier fashion destination in Middlesex with over 76 high street and designer brands. The Chimes marketing team created an innovative concept which focused on taking the shopping centre out to the public. Primal was approached to assist in the implementation of the campaign that would position The Chimes as a leading fashion destination.

“The Fashion Journey” was born and a VW camper van was styled and showcased in 15 different locations across the region.

Style guides were created giving the public a simple guide to fashion collections and looks for the coming season and accompanied by a coded key ring that could win the holder up to £1000 in cash. For shoppers to find out if they held a winning key ring they had to take it to customer services at The Chimes, therefore driving footfall.

15,000 style guides were handed out, resulting in over £5000 of prizes being given away. Footfall increased during the campaign period, with fashion stores experiencing particularly strong sales.

To support retailers and increase awareness of the Fashion, Food and Furnishings offering at The Centre, Feltham, Primal launched a dedicated quarterly shopper magazine - the F Mag.

The F Mag was designed to promote events that reflected the offering at The Centre, Feltham plus support the retail line up with magazine style features listing products stocked at the centre.

A week long experiential campaign featuring a mobile shop window van launched the F Mag. The next F Mag supported a fashion event at The Centre. The Autumn edition focused on the Food@Feltham live cooking event with TV chef James Tanner, bespoke recipe cards were also created to support the event. The Christmas issue detailed all the family entertainment available on-site over the festive period and was packed with seasonal offers and gift ideas.

RESULTS

The F Mag launch generated a PRV of £6,000 and footfall at the Centre increased by 11% Y on Y, pulling in an additional 30,000 shoppers compared with 2008. Retailers responded positively, some citing the launch week as providing the best sales figure at The Centre ever!