Venue: Trafford Centre

Frank Wainwright toured Manchester’s Trafford Centre and caught up with FMBE industry expert, Bruce Gardner, brand experience manager, Pradera Lateral, for a tour that showed a renwed purpose and energy emerging under Pradera Lateral’s guidance. Spoiler Alert: The dark days of Covid and the failure of the previous management, intu Properties are long gone.

Since first opening in 1998, Trafford Centre has been established as one of the great theatres of brand experience – combining a large and creative presence with enticing shopping, high attendance leisure and a fantastic array of restaurants.

It is a venue with architecture that evokes an eclectic mix up of historical dramas, its columns. domes, pillars and walkways sometimes suggesting classical history or sometimes Cook’s Tours era travel. It looks and behaves like a series of film studios.

The Orient, Europe’s largest food court, adds to that sense of leisure on the move. Locals used to call it The Titanic as it is designed to conjure up dining on a massive cruise liner. Once upon a time, that cruise ship’s design ambition was crowned with an ankle deep swimming pool right in the middle of the diners.

That pool closed and weas removed 2 years ago. Online reference to it is limited – its most famous moment appears to be when a YouTube prankster had the audacity to actually use it as a pool, before being cajoled away from the scene by friendly security.

Seeing this, you had to ask, why on earth was this ornamental space-consuming parody of a pool not removed sooner?

Back in 1998 experiential marketing was distinctly nascent. FMBE Awards, the very first ones for the industry, did not appear until 2004. It wasn’t until Westfield London was completed in 2008 that a shopping centre in the UK opened with a dedicated event theatre space for brands and exhibitions.

All the while, Trafford Centre built up a great portfolio of brand events using a number of different locations but overlooked one of its most potentially dynamic and viewable spots  – occupied by the pool.

The pool was removed in 2022 as part of new owner Pradera Lateral’s overhaul of the centre, swiftly following the company’s appointment as asset manager of Trafford Centre in 2021. The change immediately opens up the Orient as a natural amphitheater for the staging of grand brand events.

From the get-go, the Pradera Lateral team has leant upon the expertise of experiential industry leader Bruce Gardner as brand experience director. Bruce has a history in the industry that combines both agency and venue, with agency experience including Sense and Ogilvy and venue experience at Westfield and the Jockey Club.

Trafford Centre’s win at FMBE awards for their work with Pokémon was a coming-of-age moment for the newly overhauled centre and its continuing growth curve both as a retail and events venue.

Bruce met me at the centre and gave me a tour, pointing out a selection of new developments either complete, ongoing or planned.

I was left with a great impression of the ambition, the delivery and the opportunity. The arrival of several high end retailers shows faith in good times ahead for the centre that is growing back post both Covid and the demise of previous asset manager intu.

Store highlights in 2023 include retailers EE, Nespresso and River Island investing in the centre by relocating or upsizing existing stores. Each of the brands has introduced innovative store features, new technology and services that enhance the in-store experience. Examples include digital changing rooms, LED screens and hands-on point of sale features.

Summarising that year, Russell Loveland, Managing Director, Pradera Lateral commented:

“2023 has been a phenomenal year for new lettings at Trafford Centre, with nine new brands opening in the final quarter alone, and 20 in total. We are proud of our continued success and approach Trafford Centre lettings and customer experience by monitoring trends in the market and listening to what both customers and occupiers are telling us. Following this approach along with a focus on guest experience means Trafford continues to go strength to strength.”

Walking the centre it was obvious that the shoppers and leisure visitors are enthused and 7000 visitors to the centre’s 25^th birthday celebrations says that Trafford Centre is not just back but delivering.

The Centre is a well-situated and accessible. It is fully integrated into Metrolink public transport network and has 11,500 car parking spaces, with ten per cent of the UK population within a 45-minute drive.

The only shame was that my schedule had meant visiting on a calm midweek day, Tuesday 27^th February.  It would have been nice to see the whole centre come alive with one of its spectaculars.

As it turns out I only had to wait a couple of weeks before the aforementioned amphitheatre was lit up for an excited public by Gladiators.

The event combined the experiential talents of Trafford Centre, BBC Studios, Grand Visual, Talon and Ann Squared Events.

Leveraging Talon’s expertise in outdoor media, Grand Visual’s world class creative experience and BBC’s unrivalled entertainment legacy, this execution gave audiences the opportunity to experience the adrenaline-filled world of Gladiators action and competition for themselves.

Gladiators returned to screens for the first time this year since 2008 and has reignited fresh enthusiasm for the test of strength and speed with 9.8 million viewers tuning in to the first episode of the new series. The next generation of Gladiators has proven particularly popular with the younger audience, with 1.9m under 15s tuning in to episode one.

To support the activation, Talon planned a Digital Out of Home campaign that took over the shopping centre to drive consumers to the activity. The creative focused particularly on capturing the attention of Gladiators’ core demographic of 16-34-year-olds, designed to entice them to the adrenaline-pumped atmosphere of the replica Gladiator arena, transporting viewers into the heart of action.

Jay Young, Managing Director at Grand Visual, part of Talon, comments: “We were thrilled to partner with BBC Studios to bring the exhilarating world of Gladiators to Manchester. Through creative use of the Digital Out of Home screens positioned throughout the centre, we drove excited crowds to put their strength to the test. Audience appetite for in-person events is fully back in swing, and this presents an exciting opportunity for brands to experiment with new ways to engage with audiences.”

Niki Carr, Senior Head of Marketing at BBC, said: “Gladiators holds a special place in people’s hearts. Talon and Grand Visual helped us bring the experience to life, creating ways for people to enjoy and interact with the show, generating excitement around the semifinal and Grand Finale. This collaboration demonstrates the power of creativity to captivate audiences and drive engagement. We were thrilled to bring such a fun experience to Trafford Centre and loved watching our audience battling it out!”

The rebirth of Gladiators coinciding with a new era for Trafford Centre seemed appropriate to me. The enthusiastic family crowds that can be generated by both made this an upbeat event for everyone – participants, viewers and organisers.

As with the clear public appetite for more Gladiators, we’re very much looking forward to seeing the what the next season at Trafford Centre has in store.