Sunridge Mall
Core Branding
Challenge
Sunridge Mall came to William Joseph, wanting to update its brand and reconnect with the community. It was facing increased competition from a new shopping centre just outside the city limits and needed to boost business, become more relevant to its audience and build community with the people it serves.
William Joseph, now the Agency of Record for Sunridge, aimed to help the mall define its brand strategy and rebrand with a new personality and several different campaigns and tactics throughout the year. Sunridge wanted to dominate the trade area for shopping, socializing and creating special memories.
William Joseph Thinking
William Joseph started from scratch with Sunridge Mall. We worked together toward a universal brand, accessible to a culturally diverse target market. We wanted the mall's brand to be vibrant, attractive and community-focused, urging its customers to connect emotionally.
The creative messaging began with a new tagline: Your mall. Inspired by you. We built a colour palette that focused on the rich, vibrant red within the existing Sunridge logo and incorporated a playful word treatment with keywords such as share, explore, engage, discover and create. The goal was to use these keywords in a visually creative way to create a definitive call to action for mall patrons.
Results – Core Brand 2010-2011
Core branding initiatives in 2010 and 2011 included various in-mall elements with print and digital and in the spring of 2011, a transit awareness campaign was launched, focusing on the core brand and promoting the retail mix. This campaign also used a QR code contest. A social media strategy was developed to help increase engagement on both Facebook and Twitter.
This core brand now serves as a canvas for all Sunridge marketing activities. By incorporating key elements and developing new creative targeted at each specific campaign, William Joseph is helping Sunridge target its key demographics with unique calls to action, according to season.
Sunridge Mall
30th Birthday and Back-to-School Campaign
Challenge
Sunridge Mall celebrated its official 30th birthday on August 19, 2011, just in time for the annual back-to-school shopping season. Sunridge wanted to pair back-to-school shopping with this milestone birthday and spice up the campaign with a nostalgic 1980s theme that tied everything together.
The main objectives of the blended campaigns were:
- Engage the community: be viewed as a positive community partner.
- Drive traffic into the mall: give potential customers a reason to choose Sunridge Mall for their back-to-school shopping needs.
- Increase social media reach: focusing on Facebook and Twitter.
William Joseph Thinking
William Joseph recommended a phased approach to develop and deliver on-brand creative for Sunridge’s 30th birthday celebration and back-to-school campaigns. We wanted to address the birthday and then transition into the remaining weeks of the BTS shopping cycle, using online and conventional contests along with redemption-based direct mailers.
Results – 30th Birthday and BTS
The birthday and BTS campaign involved print and digital collateral for the mall interior, as well as a number of contests to engage shoppers and promote awareness.
An 80s theme was used to promote the birthday celebration and included a number of tactics to promote awareness and generate excitement about the birthday celebration:
- A giant birthday card located in centre court that shoppers could sign and leave messages on.
- A “Totally 80s” YouTube Battle of the Bands contest promoted via social media, in-mall collateral and “gig” posters throughout the city.
- Weekly social media 80s trivia contests.
- E-blasts and handouts promoted by the Virgin Radio Street Team.
These culminated in a birthday celebration event at Sunridge Mall, offering shoppers cupcakes, beverages and the winning Battle of the Band performance.
The back-to-school shopping campaign aligned with the birthday celebrations and extended past the birthday event. The back-to-school campaign featured such additional elements as:
- In-mall signage (print and digital)
- Food court decals
- Scratch-and-win direct mailers to the Sunridge PTA
- An in-mall scavenger hunt
- Social media contests and e-blasts.
The back-to-school campaign spoke directly to the youth demographic and used resonating imagery and marketing tactics. Sunridge achieved an outstanding response rate for a direct mail piece, and youth were provided an opportunity to engage though both conventional and social media contests.
Sunridge Mall
Express Your Imagination Art Fair 2011
Art Fair Challenge
In 2011, Sunridge Mall wanted to run a campaign and contest that embraced its new tagline, Your mall. Inspired by you.
The Express Your Imagination contest encouraged the community to express themselves through all forms of art (i.e., drawing, photography, painting, dance, jewelry making). The contest allowed individuals to submit their artwork to compete in four categories for prizes. At the completion of the fair, the final art pieces were used for displays throughout the mall.
William Joseph Thinking
William Joseph proposed a six-week rollout of the Express Your Imagination Art Fair campaign. We chose a multi-phased approach to encourage people to submit and provide an opportunity for people to vote for their favourite works of art. The cornerstone of the contest execution was the development of a microsite that integrated with the existing Sunridge Mall website, facilitating both the contest submissions and voting by the public.
Results – Art Fair 2011
The Express Your Imagination campaign kicked off with print and digital collateral and a food court display for in-mall promotion (a call to action for submissions). Out-of-mall advertising used social media, community ads and Virgin Radio vouchers with a $10 gift card that could be redeemed in the mall. The contest microsite was then launched for the artwork submissions.
In Phase 2, the campaign closed for submissions and started the online Voting for Fan Favourites in each category. Again, this was promoted through in-mall print and digital signage, social media and e-blasts.
Phase 3 featured the Awards Event at Sunridge Mall. Winners were announced and awarded prizes. Large format prints of winning entries were on display and the Virgin Radio Street Team was on site, handing out $5 vouchers for Sunridge Mall gift cards.
The contest, as a whole, was considered a great success with more than a thousand entries submitted.
Sunridge Mall
Tree Lighting and Christmas 2010
Challenge
The Sunridge Mall holiday campaign is broken into two distinct phases: the Tree Lighting and the ensuing shopping season. The Tree Lighting at Sunridge Mall is the largest outdoor tree-lighting event in Calgary and, held in mid-November, signifies the launch of the Sunridge Mall holiday season. The event includes a visit from Santa and various fun activities for families to enjoy.
Once the Tree Lighting event is over, the mall makes a seamless transition into a holiday-focused campaign with ongoing promotions and events that help draw people to the shopping centre. A number of new family activities were also going to be introduced during the holidays (such as an ice rink and Festive Family Fun nights) and needed to be communicated to the community.
William Joseph Thinking
William Joseph wanted to create a vibrant campaign built on the joy and tradition of the holiday season and focused on creating lasting holiday memories and bringing the community together.
The colour palette was done in rich jewel tones and the imagery was treated to have a look and feel similar to Norman Rockwell paintings.
The Tree Lighting event and the Sunridge Christmas campaign consisted of more than 100 pieces, including directories, in-mall print and digital signage, community ads, decals, direct mailers, social media initiatives and an online contest.
Results
The campaign was considered a success and helped grow the mall’s Facebook fans from 40 to more than 500. In addition, the mall’s holiday direct mail campaign achieved a 10 percent redemption rate.
