Shopping Centres
In 1986, MetroCentre opened in Gateshead, then the largest out-of-town shopping centre in Europe. It was launched by Saatchi and Saatchi. Things didn’t quite turn out as planned, and the following year, my agency, Robson Brown, pitched for the account and secured it.
I worked on the account for the next 30 years.
Since 1987, I’ve worked with the following Shopping Centres -
in no particular order:
Eldon Square, Newcastle.
Manor Walks, Cramlington.
St. Enouch. Glasgow.
Braehead, Glasgow.
Victoria Centre, Nottingham.
Broadmarsh, Nottingham.
The Chimes, Uxbridge.
Midsummer Place, Milton Keynes.
Trafford Centre, Manchester.
Arndale Centre, Manchester.
Cornmill, Darlington.
The Marlowes, Hemel Hempstead.
The great thing about shopping Centres is that you get to
produce the whole gamut of marketing channels: TV, Radio,
out-of-home, digital, direct mail, POS, experiential, everything, really! Here is just a small sample of campaigns produced.
Shopping Centres are a reflection of their local community. Campaigns need to feed into the needs and desires of the locals.
Campaigns must talk to them in language they understand, and buy into, excuse the pun. This campaign for Braehead in Glasgow did just that. It would have been easy to list everything you could do there. But we decided to lay down a challenge to the public. This worked amazingly well. Brilliant on social media. So much so, that Braehead was voted best family day out by Radio Clyde listeners. Not long after this, the intu Group decided, in their wisdom, to centralise their campaigns and roll out a national strategy - one size fits all! Doomed to failure, they folded soon after.
All the intu campaigns here were written by me, and brilliantly art-directed by the massively talented Tony Lowe.
Ideas are vital. Simple ideas are the Holy Grail. This campaign for the launch of Grey's Quarter at Eldon Square in Newcastle city centre is simplicity at its best. With 20 new restaurants, Grey’s Quarter would be anything but grey!
With Colourful Dining as the concept, fantastic art direction by Tony Lowe really brought it to life, literally bursting with colour!
The beautiful and slightly bonkers Trafford Centre in Manchester wanted a campaign to promote its many homeware outlets. Highly regarded for fashion, homewares had a less glamorous reputation. This was our cue for the idea. Sell homewares like fashion - Home Couture! Look closely at the images, you’ll see necklaces made of cutlery and hats made of lampshades!
Again, amazing art direction by Tony Lowe.
The Chimes sat at the very heart of Uxbridge. The Town Centre basically. It later became intu Uxbridge. However, at the time
of this campaign, it remained independent. Most people in Uxbridge would visit The Chimes, but often just to pass through, using it as a thoroughfare. We decided to use that familiarity in a very personal, friendly manner - See you soon!
Nottingham have two large shopping centres, Victoria Centre and Broadmarsh. My agency, Hedley McEwan, handled them both. There’s no real need to state who this was for. Once again, just a very simple idea, beautifully executed.
Over 30 years of working with MetroCentre, it, of course, saw many changes. The Centre has had several incarnations of the brand, and the retailers have also reinvented themselves, with some new, and some gone forever.
The structure too has been developed to keep up with the times. This campaign marked one of those upgrades, I called it ‘metromorphosis’, very fitting, don’t you think!
