Intu’s nationwide ‘Big Treat’

Packed with compelling experiences including workshops, discounts, competitions and social media rewards, the campaign will encourage visitors to treat themselves and try something new.

By attracting more visitors and increasing their dwell times, existing retailers at the centres will benefit from strong footfall so their businesses can flourish. In addition, ‘The Big Treat’ highlights the wide range of restaurants and leisure attractions available, giving customers a reason to try a different dining experience, or ‘kids go free’ cinema tickets to treat the family to a movie. With Sea Life at intu Trafford Centre, Snow Factor ski slope at intu Braehead, and  more, the choice of leisure options is considerable.

The extensive choice of events and attractions for all the family include artisan food markets, workshops for hands-on fun, cookery demos from local catering colleges, live music – including a band called ‘The Courgettes’ – plus discounts ranging from a free bottle of wine with a meal to free Nando’s for a year.

Trevor Pereira, commercial & digital director of intu, said: “Our shopping centres are known for the great range of shops, restaurants and leisure attractions. We want to give customers reasons to try new things, make discoveries and be surprised. We want to encourage shoppers to visit more often, stay for longer and try a wide range of experiences.”

“intu is the only company with a wide geographic spread of prime shopping centres. We are therefore in a great position to organise national campaigns to engage large numbers of customers. Each centre will organise its own attractions in keeping with local tastes, interests and relevance. Discounts and prizes will encourage customers to discover all that is good in their local intu shopping centre.”

Additionally, intu provides the most digitally connected shopping centres giving customers a seamless online and offline experience and ‘The Big Treat’ is no different. The online aspects of the campaign will appeal to omni-channel shoppers, and the #intuBigTreat hashtag will encourage conversations. Social media will include promotions so customers can nominate their friends and family for gifts and  presents using a Facebook app for the campaign. The transactional website, intu.co.uk, where customers can shop intu 24/7, will feature a number of flash sale treats for limited time periods.

‘The Big Treat’ has a major corporate social responsibility element in keeping with intu’s commitment to the community. Participation by customers, for example, can result in free cinema tickets for local schools.

intu organises events, activities and attractions throughout the year encouraging customer visits and benefiting retailers and restaurateurs. Recent experiences have ranged from Kate & Mim-Mim of CBeebies to the UK’s first national shopping centre brand immersion campaign of a movie launch for Dreamworks’ ‘Home’.