Q4 2017 Review – Rhys Jones – Director, Retail Alchemy
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In case you missed the Spring issue of FMBE Magazine, here is the popular ‘Activity Report’ from SpaceandPeople which overviews trends from the previous quarter (ie Q4, Winter 2017)
Food and drink sampling was as popular as ever in Q4 with a range of brands choosing train stations and city centre locations as their venue of choice. Branston Pickle visited multiple locations including Cardiff and Leeds with its branded sampling van distributing samples of the product with cheese accompaniments. Müller Rice and Almond Breeze both went on tours of train stations across the UK with their sampling activations; Müller Rice to support their advertising campaign “The 5 Grains Crew” and Almond Breeze with a branded VW camper van. There was also a healthy eating pop-up at Lewisham Shopping Centre and an experiential campaign by MAOAM which visited multiple shopping centres including St David’s Centre in Cardiff.
Building on the success of The Economist’s #feedingthefuture campaign, the publication, in partnership with agency Sense, added a new twist over the winter months by encouraging Londoners to try free nutritious soup made from vegetables destined for the rubbish bin. The campaign visited multiple high footfall London locations including One New Change.
In the run up to Christmas, several retailers also carried out pop-up activity including Amazon who brought their Treasure Truck to Charing Cross and Kiehl’s on Wheels returned to Paddington Central. Starbucks re-introduced its limited-edition cup for Christmas and tied it in with an experiential sampling activation at King’s Cross Station. E.On helped visitors to Broadgate beat the winter blues by hosting a taste of summer pop-up which included giant beach chairs, table tennis and crazy golf.
Cadbury’s placed a giant snow globe in multiple shopping centres including White Rose in Leeds, encouraging shoppers to take a selfie in the globe. LEGO visited Buchanan Galleries in Glasgow asking young LEGO builders to create Christmas decorations as part of its #BuildToGive campaign and Nintendo Switch toured shopping centres, including The Glades in Bromley, enabling shoppers to try out the console.
Also in Buchanan Galleries, BMW gave shoppers the opportunity to experience the BMW i3 with an education area and an innovative light installation with the chance to test drive the car within the car park.
There were also some activations to raise awareness of particular milestones. CrossCountry celebrated its 10th birthday by placing photo booths in Meadowhall, Grand Central and White Rose shopping centres and Atout France visited St Pancras International offering train passengers the chance to see the Ryder Cup to promote the event which is being held in France for the first time in 2018.
Venue Spotlight: Regional Train Stations
Train stations offer a fantastic platform for brands to target commuters and a high volume of train passengers effectively.
Edinburgh Waverley Station offers services to all main Scottish cities as well as long distance destinations include York, Birmingham and London and has a weekly footfall over 508,000. Glasgow Central is a major mainline terminus with a weekly footfall of over 697,000. The station serves Greater Glasgow’s suburbs and towns as well as being the terminus for all intercity services to cities in England.
Leeds Station is an important stop between Scotland, the Midlands and South West England and has a weekly footfall of over 590,000 people. Manchester Piccadilly serves multiple intercity destinations as well as other destinations throughout Northern England with over 767,000 visitors per week (43% are within 35-54 age bracket). Birmingham New Street Station is a major destination for services from London, Glasgow and Edinburgh and a national hub for the CrossCountry network serving destinations from Aberdeen to Penzance.
Liverpool Lime Street terminus station is located in the city centre and serves a wide variety of destinations including Norwich, Newcastle, Manchester, Leeds and York. The station also has an underground station covering the Liverpool area. Bristol Temple Meads is an important transport hub for public transport and receives trains from London Paddington travelling to Swansea, Weston-Super-Mare, and Penzance. The station runs services to Cardiff, Portsmouth and Brighton, as well as cities in the north and Scotland.
Reading Station plays a key role on the Great Western Main line, servicing over 200 destinations running west from London Paddington Station with cross country services to Birmingham, the North and the South Coast.
For more information, please contact marketing@spaceandpeople.co.uk.
2017 Q4 ACTIVITY BREAKDOWN
| Automotive | 13% |
| Communications | 3% |
| Entertainment | 24% |
| Financial | 3% |
| Food & Drink | 35% |
| Health & Beauty | 4% |
| Property/Home Related | 4% |
| Miscellaneous | 2% |
| Retailer | 7% |
| Travel | 5% |
