We like to keep busy – it keeps us on our toes. And we’re pretty unflappable when it comes to planning shopping centre events. So, even when The Brewery asked us to come up with three events in four weeks to engage the community and create some fun for families, it was a wish come true – although our second wish may have been not to have such a tight deadline ?
Building up the Brewery’s events
The Brewery hadn’t done an event for a while, so, it decided to create three in four weeks… what do they say about buses?
And three events called for special thinking.
We wanted to make sure that any event we did got the whole family involved. The Brewery has a great range of retailers and leisure facilities and it just so happened that one of the weekends we had down was the launch of the much-anticipated Aladdin film. As Vue Cinemas were situated in the centre, we thought this would be great tie in. GENIE-US right?
We decided to host a whole weekend of Aladdin themed workshops including genie mask making, lantern making and even hired an Aladdin stilt walker to welcome our film and Disney fans.
But the fun didn’t end there! No Siree…because the next weekend we had to do it all again. This time we decided to help build kids’ creativity and host a BRICKLIVE themed weekend. Featuring a brick pit, graffiti walls and tables, we helped (well, watched) as the professionals built character masks. Our account director even got in on the action, encouraging little ones to build a tower higher than her…
Did it work? Take a look at the video
One Great Charity Event
The Brewery has a strong charity ethos and works to ensure it supports these where it can. So, when June for One Great Day came about, they wanted to make sure they had a great event to support it. Roll up On-Brand! We worked with The Brewery to create a fun filled Saturday full of fun circus activities from a ringmaster hosting workshop offering rubber duck decorating, circus mask making and wooden spoon crafts. Oh, and let’s not forget the fairground stalls including ball in a bucket, feed the clown, ring on the bull and other retro fun to get involved in.
And the best bit about it? All proceeds went to children’s hospitals and health charities. Our ringmaster also had special ties to the hospital and told us after the event: ‘It was lovely to see all the children having a go at circus skills this weekend at The Brewery.
‘When I was employed as a Clown Doctor at Great Ormond Street, fun and games were so important to the children in their care, and I really enjoyed keeping up with their progress while teaching them new tricks.’
But he wasn’t the only one who had something to add… as they say, only the truth comes out of kids’ mouths so here’s some quotes from them ?
“This is so much fun, I can’t wait to tell my friends about this at school!” Child, age 6.
“I’m going to keep practicing hula hooping!” Child, aged 7.
The results…
- Great local PR thanks to articles from The Romford Recorder newspaper.
- Awareness of the centre grew thanks to articles from mummy bloggers for all three events
- We secured a newspaper photographer to come down to One Great Day as a result of our press release and contacts!
- Successful year-on-year footfall growth, using the events to build the brand and its community ethics
- Social media engagement grew as did reach and reactions
- Dwell time increased as did kids’ happiness – we can’t really say more than that can we!
