Shopping Centres

The Challenge

The Baytree Shopping Centre asked OnBrand to organise a fun, community focused Easter event that would get young families in Brentwood excited for Easter and all things chocolate!

Enter OnBrand

OnBrand, of course, got egg-cited and set about creating an event that would encourage shopper participation, create a feel-good factor and increase dwell times in the centre, and ongoing loyalty.

Success for the client was delivered by OnBrand through implementing multi-channel marketing promoted by posters, radio advertising and a press release distributed to local media, paired with strong digital marketing.

As with many of our events, retailer engagement was part of the brief, and we set about getting retailers involved in our plans. This led to a bumper Easter hamper competition created with strong support from several retailers, and of course lots of chocolate for our winner!

Key to all our activations is driving traffic to the centre website, where sign up and further loyalty can be acquired resulting in a reduced cost to reach shoppers in further marketing efforts. To drive this, the competition was only available on the Baytree website and marketing via social media brought a spike in web traffic, supported by a geo targeted paid boosted Facebook campaign.

On the day we delivered an Easter Egg hunt that engaged shoppers further, driving them into participating retailer stores where clues (and large print eggs) had been secreted.

For those children a little younger we provided an Easter crafts station for kids to create their own dress up bunny ears, create hampers and decorate eggs.

In engaging the wider local community of Brentwood, the day was supported by Safer Brentwood, a local police partnership initiative. Entertainment was provided by a local youth dance troupe who used the centre as a perfect indoor, dry covered environment to allow their kids the ability to showcase what they do and give them a focal point for the finale of their workshops. Certainly, they kept shoppers very much entertained with their singing and dancing routines.

Lastly, and to ensure a lasting memory and ongoing post event promotion the magic of the day was captured on video.

Key Wins

The day was a triumph, with a number of key wins for the centre, shoppers and OnBrand.

• A fun family day out with craft activities and Easter hunt
• Retailers involved in the day, in online competitions, and shoppers driven into store
• Positive relationship between the centre and its retailers increased
• Local community engagement and partnerships brought into the event
• Increased event anticipation due to the multi-channelled marketing approach
• Happy shoppers and children, resulting in a positive opinion of Baytree Shopping Centre
• The Easter competition garnered record-breaking entries
• Social media channels were popular entry points to the competition entry page, proving the success of accurately targeted marketing

The Challenge

To help celebrate the mothers of Brentwood, Baytree Shopping Centre wanted to organise a Mother’s Day event that would get people excited and ready for Mother’s Day and help them show all the Mums in their community how much they are appreciated.

Enter OnBrand

The event aimed at encouraging people to come to the centre and participate in the day’s activities and had the added benefit of drawing in passing foot traffic. To help encourage interaction and anticipation of the event and Mother’s Day there was also a Mother’s Day competition sponsored by two Baytree Shopping Centre retailers.

Our plan to ensure success:

• A multi-channel marketing plan was implemented
• Visual and radio advertising were utilised
• Social media marketing through Facebook and Twitter
• Carefully targeted boosted Facebook posts
• Free and fun Mother’s Day related crafts to drive families into the centre
• Amazing free entertainment from local community partners
• Free daffodils for all the mothers in the centre

OnBrand was on hand throughout the day’s activities to ensure the event went smoothly, and guaranteeing that a fun time was had by all.

Key Wins

• Record breaking footfall numbers with more than 12,500 visitors on the day
• Retailer involvement with the Mother’s Day competition
• Community engagement and partnership
• Multi-channel advertising resulted in increased anticipation of the event
• Family involvement in the event

What They Say

“Another first event for Baytree, the centre received clear and easy to follow proposal that was tailored to the event budget. The event sent our social media channels into a frenzy with a number of positive reviews, compliments, and proud parents sharing their children’s happy day ”

Dan Foley – Manager of Baytree Shopping Centre

The Challenge

Baytree Shopping Centre wanted to organise an event that would get people excited for Valentine’s Day, as well as increase centre footfall and drive more people into the retailers.

Enter OnBrand

The event aimed at encouraging people to visit the centre and participate in the day’s activities. An added footfall driver was the Baytree Shopping Centre Valentine’s Day competition, sponsored by several of the centre’s retailers.

We developed a plan to ensure success:

• A multi-channel marketing plan was implemented including visual and audio advertising
• Multi-facetted social media marketing and advertising, with paid promotion to a carefully targeted social media audience
• Retailer engagement resulting in competition prizes and retailer involvement
• Community engagement, resulting in community partnerships and involvement in the event
• A day of free and fun activities to drive people into the centre

To ensure that the day went off without a hitch, OnBrand was on hand, and made sure that shoppers, their kids and the centre staff had a great day!

Key Wins

• The event resulted in increased competition entries
• Increased the marketing database
• Family involvement in the event
• Positive feedback from retailers
• Improved tenant relationships and engagement
• Advertising resulted in increased anticipation of the event
• Expanded event reach with the balloons travelling down the high street outside the centre

What They Say

“The centre had never hosted a valentine event previously so it was with great excitement when we received Onbrand proposal. This event was a huge success and was supported by a record number of competition entries and an incredible increase of 22,000 in website views
The event also allowed the introduction of the fantastic local theatre school, Razzmatazz.
The event video is a feature page on the centre website and shows the shared values and ethos”

Dan Foley – Manager of Baytree Shopping Centre

The Challenge

Ahead of Valentine’s Day, St George’s Shopping Centre wanted to organise an event that would get people excited for the day of love, as well as increase centre footfall and drive more people into the retailers.

Enter OnBrand

The event needed to be welcoming and help reinforce St. George’s Shopping Centre’s presence and its caring nature to the community, by encouraging people to participate in the day’s activities. Two primary activities were used to help encourage participation, free face painting for the children and roaming Valentine’s Day themed St. George’s selfie frames, linked to a retailer sponsored competition.

We developed a plan to ensure success:

• Retailer engagement and participation with a sponsored competition prize and free gifts on the day
• A day of free and fun activities to drive people into the centre
• Implementation of a multi-channelled marketing strategy
• Radio messaging and advertising to promote the event
• Social media marketing to a carefully targeted audience, including paid advertising

During the day, OnBrand was on hand to ensure everything went smoothly, and that all parties involved, including the staff, retailers and shoppers, had a great day!

Key Wins

• Excellent event engagement from shoppers and people passing on the high street
• Local media coverage
• Great social media engagement before and after the event
• Advertising resulted in increased anticipation by shoppers
• Good tenant involvement
• Increased shopper competition entries for the retailer sponsored Valentine’s Day competition
• Shopper data captured through competition entries, expanding the marketing database
• Family involvement in the event – parents and their kids loved the face painting, and the balloons and chocolates handed out
• Expanded event reach as the balloons and selfie frames travelled up and down the high street outside the centre

The Challenge

St George’s Shopping Centre wanted to organise an event that would get people excited for Christmas, as well as increase centre footfall and drive more people into the retailers.

Enter OnBrand

The event needed to be festive and encourage little ones to take part, so we organised a day of festive craft workshops!

We developed a plan to ensure success:

• A morning and afternoon workshop would be hosted
• A multi-channelled marketing plan was implemented
• Posters were deployed around the centre
• In-centre radio messaging was employed
• Facebook and Twitter were used for social media marketing
• Targeted Facebook boosts extended the event’s social media reach

OnBrand was on hand on the day to ensure everything went smoothly, and that both shoppers, their kids and the centre staff had a great day!

Key Wins

• Family involvement in the event
• Great social media interaction before and after the event
• Advertising resulted in increased anticipation by shoppers

The Challenge

Ahead of Christmas and to kick off the festive season, Pavilions Shopping Centre wanted to host a Christmas themed event that would bring the local community together, increase footfall, and drive more people into the retailers over the Christmas period!

Enter OnBrand

To ensure this was an event that would do the centre proud and get people into the festive spirit, it had to be a day that everyone would remember and enjoy.

Numerous exciting and unique activities were planned for the day, to help people enjoy the day’s festivities:

• The Mayor switched on the Christmas lights and opened Santa’s Grotto
• Kids could visit Santa and receive a gift from the man himself
• A giant snow globe where people could have their photo taken
• A surprise performance by local dance troupe
• Roaming entertainment

Our plan for success:

• Designed a successful multi-channelled marketing campaign
• Deployed posters around the centre
• Implemented social media campaigns on Facebook and Twitter
• Facebook boosts to carefully targeted audiences
• In-centre radio messaging and newsletter

To help capture the magic of the day, a videographer was onsite during the event, which was later shared to the Pavilions social media channels, generating great interaction with followers.

Key Wins

• A good turnout by the local community
• Good interaction with shoppers on the day
• Community involvement, with the mayor opening the day’s events
• Increase in social media engagement before and after the event

What the client says:

“It was my first Christmas here at The Pavilions Shopping Centre and I thought it was by far the best Christmas/ Grotto opening day I have ever attended. With the Mayor of Broxbourne switching on the Christmas lights, a snow globe that attracted lots of people, lively DJ who played non-stop festive songs all day, entertainment from live performers – Hodman and Sally – and many more activities, it was truly a day to remember. Thank you to the OnBrand team for making this event a success. Looking forward to 2018!”

Gary Cook, Centre Manager & Kelvin Nwadiaro, Operations M

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