Events

The Challenge

Halloween is becoming increasingly popular in the UK, particularly among children. To feed off that popularity, Pavilions Shopping Centre wanted to organise a community event around Halloween, with the added aim of increasing footfall and driving more people into the retailers.

Enter OnBrand

OnBrand was tasked with organising a Halloween Craft Workshop, where all the craft activities were free. The exciting event was aimed largely at families with younger children. However, we had to find a way to make the event engage and interest adults and teenagers too.

What we did:

• Halloween appropriate music to build the atmosphere
• A flash mob dance to Michael Jackson’s Thriller by local dance troupe
• Kids Halloween inspired arts and crafts workshop

The flash mob was a huge success, drawing in a large crowd who had whipped out their smartphones and were engaging in social media activity.

Our key to success:

• Multi-channelled marketing campaign implemented
• Posters placed around the centre
• Social media posts on Twitter and Facebook
• Carefully targeted Facebook boosts to expand audience reach
• In-centre radio event messaging

On the day, a talented videographer was in-centre to film the day’s events, which was later posted on social media channels to a great reaction from followers!

Key Wins

• Community involvement and engagement
• Good social media interaction around the event
• Social media videos well received post-event
• Good turnout for the event

What the client says:

“Halloween was without doubt the best event we had run so far. Working with OnBrand we delivered Halloween themed crafting sessions for the local children throughout the day, which went down a storm! Alongside this we had a DJ playing spooky music which really helped to set the atmosphere. This was topped off with a surprise Flash Mob from a local dance studio, whose members secretly spread themselves out –  throughout the Centre and then, on cue, danced a fantastic routine to Michael Jackson’s Thriller. It really was a terrific, fun filled day, which went without a hitch thanks to the OnBrand team, who helped to plan, coordinate and then deliver on site. I cannot wait for next year!”

Gary Cook, Centre Manager & Kelvin Nwadiaro, Operations Manager – The Pavilions Shopping Centre

The Challenge

Off the back of positive footfall and to ease retailers concerns of a drop off as the school and summer holidays kicked in, OnBrand were invited to create a memorable event in the Pavilions Shopping Centre.

Enter OnBrand

To recognise the challenge of maintaining and increasing footfall, we wanted to create an event that the community would enjoy, and that retailers would directly see the benefit of – hence the Summer Party at Pavilions was launched – creating an uplifting festive atmosphere that was both budget-friendly and engaging. Our event also had to be compelling enough not to allow the external Street Fair to draw away footfall from the centre as well.

OnBrand devised a plan to ensure success:

1. Give shoppers reasons to go into the centre
2. Create an internal event to increase dwell time, entertain shoppers and add atmosphere
3. Engage shoppers (and young families) with new experiences and see the centre in a more positive light
4. Entice them to participate and sign up to future newsletters and comms.

Recognising the budget was low, we capitalised on the fact the centre owned its own car park and created a competition for shoppers to “Win 3 Months Free Parking, a prize worth £500”

We also brought in a handful of specialist pop-up shops for the day (bringing to life the dormant vacant units in the centre) and four mini-gigs performed by up-and-coming artist Rozen Child who created song content around shoppers.

Equally popular was the appearance of a fortune teller, who created so much word-of-mouth hype that her table was never empty.

This was all topped off with striking posters and postcards pre promoting in the run up and a circulated press release which won some free local coverage.

We also created internal radio messages promoting the event in the build-up to the party, as well as messages that played throughout the day itself.

On the day Pavilions branded promotional staff handed out hundreds of balloons to the many families in the area and in the centre, and postcards highlighting the competition and previewing the event inside the mall.

Key Wins

• A show of support towards the local council
• Enhanced shopper experience for the customers
• Supportive comments from retailers
• Increase in online engagement across social media
• Spike in footfall (highest footfall for a Saturday in July 2017, up 3.4% from 2016)

What They Say

“OnBrand have been fantastic. By taking the time to really get to know us, our customers and our tenants they were able to deliver a fun and memorable event that was enjoyed by all. Planning and looking after every detail meant my team and I were able to relax and enjoy the day, knowing that everything was under control. With some good feedback, strong footfall figures and happy customers, I can’t wait for the next one!”

Gary Cook, Centre Manager – The Pavilions Shopping Centre

The Challenge

Shopping centres up and down the country support One Great Day, an annual charity fundraising day, raising money for Great Ormond Street Hospital Children’s Charity. Like many schemes, the challenge was to engage retailers and get them and the many stakeholders in the centre onboard, and create an event that would not only bring in footfall and drive spend, but would provide entertainment, fun and most importantly raise money for GOSH. Our challenge at OnBrand was how would we achieve this and make sure we raised more money than we would spend putting the event on.

With a proven soft spot for charity, aided by the fact a member of our team has received help from GOSH for the past 15-years, we decided that given the available budget and the great work GOSH do for so many young people we would throw a party that made Baytree proud.

Right off the bat we offered two dedicated staff members – an Account Manager and an Events Manager – to visit the centre on a weekly basis. With these visits, we could take a hands-on approach to engaging with retailers in the centre, as well as others throughout the High Street, leading to an impressive number of donated gifts for our central raffle.

Posters and postcards with striking designs went up on walls and in shop windows to advertise the event, and an online marketing campaign ensured daily activity via the centre’s website and social media channels, where a mixture of content and event articles ranged from touching to funny, inspiring to truly interesting.

To spread the word of the event (playfully titled The Only Way Is GOSH) we contacted bloggers, press and radio stations in the surrounding area of Brentwood, Essex, informing them of our event line-up. Radio mentions followed, as did a number of print and online articles bringing awareness to our campaign.

And it wouldn’t be an OnBrand event without a number of catchy radio messages playing in the centre, informing shoppers of upcoming events, as well as highlighting what shoppers could do on the day itself.

The icing on the cake was the inclusion of a handful of pop-up shops, including a fashion retailer, a jeweller, a milkshake stand, local publishers, a pop-up gym, and a local cake firm that sold some dazzling treats. And of course, there was live music provided by up-and-coming artist Rozen Child, who performed four mini-gigs.

Key Wins

• Great event that enhanced shopper experience for customers
• Feel good factor for all stakeholders – retailers, centre and shoppers alike
• Tenant relationships and engagement improved
• Footfall spike achieved
• Good local media coverage
• Donation raised for GOSH far outweighed costs

What They Say

“The Baytree Centre Management consists of a small team with a family feel. We quickly identified that OnBrand shared the same passion for Charity, and with their expertise we believed they could help us deliver a truly great event.

OnBrand accepted the challenge and quickly got to task, in line with our views and ethos, OnBrand increased their workload and extended the vision to the High Street retailers as well as the local community. What was delivered was truly remarkable and is still the talk of the town.”
Dan Foley, Centre Manager