REFLECT- SOVEREIGN SHOPPING CENTRE
Involved Partners: Dan Colman Creative, ITV, North Somerset Council
When others cancelled, we were DETERMINED to give Weston customers a positive experience! Two completely bespoke events in August and November/December 2021 increased our footfall during the two events by 22% compared to 2019, perception- 98% customer satisfaction rating and social media performance +450% engagement and 400,000 post reach. The Centre partnered Dan Colman creative and developed a completely new, immersive “edutainment” event, designed for family groups, based upon the ITV show “Brainiac”.
Download the video HERE
With an annual marketing budget of only £30,000 we had to ensure value, impact and quality in a former food hall. The production budget for these events was £12,000 and communication budget £2,500, We worked on the production/scripting together as it had never been done before in a shopping centre. We organised a focus group, and this enabled some tweaks to be made; filming for the first “Detective academy” (families learn how to solve a crime in a workshop format) started in May 2021.
This attracted over 1,300 over four days, with socially distanced tables sold by family groups. Media AVE alone was over £50,000 so a real return on investment. Fast forward to Christmas and again, many cancelled events, but we knew we could operate another Brainiac show, to both comply and reassure customers. Mission to Mars again delivered huge results, where families learned how to construct a space rocket and launch it (the video explains this the best!) 1,250 attendances over three days, we had customers visiting Weston, just for this. Traders enjoyed an incredible summer as a result-footfall even beating 2018 figures by 7%! We had more green lights sales indications (above target) than in 2019!
Many customers said “thank you for both delivering these events, when so many events were being cancelled, but for making us WANT to visit Weston again” Changing perception.
TESTIMONIAL
“Jon’s support and belief in our creativity and production capability, together with a shared determination to work through the challenges, find solutions to problems and deliver worthwhile memories , resulted in a fantastic partnership, very happy audiences, and a success for us all.”
Dan Colman – Managing Director – Dan Colman Creative Ltd