The Primedia Unlimited subsidiary produced four campaigns which reached Spectrum finalist status as a result of their Gold accolades received at the 2010 Footprint Awards. In total, seven Gold Footprint awards vied for the coveted Spectrum Award.
The SACSC (South African Council of Shopping Centres) Spectrum Awards honours achievements in innovation, creativity, vision and excellence across all disciplines and all sectors within the South African retail industry. In essence, the ceremony honours the crème-de-la-crème in the retail industry and can thus be likened in stature to that of the Hollywood’s Oscar Awards.
Rising above the 250 entries from shopping centres across the country, Cavendish Square and the Primedia Lifestyle marketing team secured the Spectrum for the ‘Football, Fashion and Fine Art’ winter campaign strategy, entered in the Public Relations category. With the campaign having claimed gold at the SACSC (South African Council of Shopping Centres) Marketing Footprint Awards earlier this year, the campaign once again showed its pedigree as the winning South Africa marketing strategy of the year.
Doug Mayne, National Marketing Executive at Lifestyle says, “We’re extremely proud of our Cavendish marketing team for winning this coveted award in recognition of exceptional expertise. The team are consistently delivering outstanding marketing plans and have again ensured we remain leaders in shopping centre marketing.”
Over the May to July campaign period, the Primedia Lifestyle team ensured that media exposure for Cavendish Square increased exponentially, tallying an estimated value of R4.5 million. The team also successfully reduced the in-centre marketing costs through securing of partners and sponsorships valued at almost R300 000.
The fully integrated campaigns throughout winter yielded incredible results for the centre, in spite of challenging retail trading conditions. In May, the local economy struggled to overcome the effects of the global economic recession, with analysts pinning their hopes for recovery on the thousands of tourists that the 2010 FIFA World Cup would attract. Primedia Lifestyle’s collection of winter campaigns aimed to attract tourists and the local primary target market over the traditional hibernation months. Through association with appropriate and entertaining activities, the Lifestyle team ensured that the centre maintained its status as a premium fashion mall.
To meet client objectives, Primedia Lifestyle’s marketing team saw an opportunity to create an online community via social networking tools as a relatively affordable communication channel. Through smart social media tactics, the centre increased engagement with customers on Facebook and upped its fan base by over 1000 over the three month period.
The marketing team facilitated three fashion events, attended by over 600 guests including some hot local celebrities and media, with the event being filmed by Top Billing and featured on Zoopy. The events ensured that the centre and its fashion tenants received access to the crème de la crème of local shoppers and top earners.
Primedia Lifestyle secured the exclusive VIP Worldwide retail launch of the 2010 Fine Art Collection, being the only shopping centre partner for the exhibition in the Western Cape, Cavendish hosted the largest selection of 2010 Fine Art in the country. For the World Cup period, Cavendish focused on showing its support and enhancing shoppers’ experiences, creating an entertainment programme including Diski Dances every Saturday, a daily cabaret performance of songs from countries playing in the World Cup and a WAG look-a-like, who caused quite a stir when seen on a shopping spree with her two bodyguards in Cavendish.
Post soccer fever, the team anticipated that both retail trading and moods in general would slump, and hence introduced new activities to assist shoppers recover from the dramatic end to the World Cup, ensuring that Cavendish remained the media darling. For Mandela Day the team mobilised shoppers to lend a hand, in the spirit of giving back. Customers were given three easy ways to contribute to charity and demonstrate their individual ability to make an imprint and change the world around them.
Madrie Verwey, Marketing Manager for Cavendish Square comments, “It’s been an incredible year for Cavendish and the Lifestyle team. Having been recognised for excellence in shopping centre marketing at each level - winning a silver Solal Award, two gold and two silver Footprint Awards and now the Spectrum, is a huge honour.”
