THE MALL BLACKBURN SCOOPS NATIONAL AWARD
The Mall Blackburn has scooped a prestigious national award for its marketing campaign for the launch of the completed £66m redevelopment in 2011.
It was awarded a Purple Apple Award for the Strategic Overall Integrated Marketing Campaign after beating off stiff competition from across the UK.
During the campaign, which saw footfall in the shopping centre increase by a massive 14 per cent, The Mall worked with three Lancashire based creative agencies.
ICG PR of Warton and TPW and White Noise, both from Darwen, were all commissioned to work on different elements of the brief including PR, design and television advertisement production following the completion of the extensive works at The Mall.
The Mall’s marketing team, headed by Samantha Butcher, mixed traditional and digital marketing tools to engage with the local community and attract shoppers from across Lancashire, the North West and beyond.
A Lancashire wide hunt to find real ‘models’ for The Mall’s TV and print advertisements and its launch event fashion show resulted in hundreds of hopefuls coming to the shopping centre for auditions.
Public relations was used to drive entries and announce the winners, resulting in county wide media coverage and radio advertising was implemented to generate interest in the centre and the fashion show.
Coronation Street favourites Katherine Kelly (Becky McDonald) and Chris Fountain (Tommy Duckworth) were booked for the launch event and thousands of fans queued for hours to meet their idols.
A survey carried out following the campaign revealed that 82 per cent of those questioned said that the campaign had portrayed Blackburn in a positive way and had encouraged them to visit more often.
The Purple Apple Marketing Awards recognise and reward shopping centres that have delivered effective creative marketing campaigns that stand out from the crowd.
Judges were impressed with the strategic thinking and delivery of each of the elements of the campaign and the official statement included comments such as:
“Very clear objective and strategy to bring old and new customers back to Blackburn. Good use of all media to deliver the message of “prepare to be impressed”, creatively delivered with the support of the local community who give the feeling of The Mall belonging to the community.
“Excellent footfall results as well as strong feedback from key retailers. Good community link with a ‘real people’ concept. Nice promotion creating an impact for one day with a good hook in the use of ‘celebs’.”
Loraine Jones, General Manager at The Mall Blackburn, said: “I am thrilled that our efforts to increase awareness of the redevelopment proved so successful.
“The Purple Apple Awards are very well respected in the industry and to have received recognition is a real coup.
“We have a fantastic marketing team here at The Mall, who are all very passionate about what they do. If you couple this with the brilliant relationships with have with our external creative partners you can see that we really do have a winning formula!
“Our focus now is to continue to build on this success to attract more and more shoppers to The Mall Blackburn.”
-ends-
Picture shows: Loraine Jones, General Manager at The Mall Blackburn, Austin Healey, former English Rugby Union Player and Strictly Come Dancing star, Samantha Butcher, Marketing Manager at The Mall Blackburn, Izzie Peskett, National Marketing Manager at Capital and Regional and Peter Drummond, BCSC President and Chief Executive, BDP.
Notes to editors:
More information about The Mall
The Mall is the UK's leading community shopping centre Fund. Managed by Capital & Regional and Aviva Investors, The Mall Fund owns 9 shopping centres across the UK - home to approximately 1220 retail units and attracting approximately 1.9 million shopping visits every week.
Shopping as it should be…………. www.themall.co.uk
For further editorial information about The Mall Blackburn, contact Paula Holden, Denise Dawson or Julie Hackett at ICG on 01772 679383 or email paula@icgonline.co.uk, denise@icgonline.co.uk or Julie@icgonline.co.uk
Out of hours contact is Paula Holden on 07772268378
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