St David’s Partnership

October 2009 saw the launch of St David’s £675m shopping centre in Cardiff.

Our brief was to build a destination shopping brand and launch it in the midst of recession.

The ‘old’ St David’s was perceived to be a reliable but functional shopping destination. The challenge was to re-position St David’s as a centre for style and fashion in Cardiff and Wales, appealing to new shoppers, whilst strengthening relationships with existing shoppers.

‘Find your ID’ was developed as our selling idea, to integrate the fashion proposition with the St David’s brand – establishing St David’s as the place to find whatever you want to fit your own identity. Fashion-led, iconic creative work was then developed to appeal to a range of shopper types and rolled out across a range of targeted integrated channels. Integrated media included Press, Outdoor, Radio, Online Banners, Skyscrapers and Social Networking Sites, Ambient, Door to Door, Electronic Direct Mail, Print.

Seamless combining of brand identity and the creative idea provided distinctiveness and stand out instantly.

The campaign got noticed. Campaign awareness reached an outstanding 46% (the benchmark is 25%).

Footfall increased over 60% over the first three months from launch – way in excess of target.

Fears about recessionary spending were swept aside. Not only were retail sales up by over double during the launch week, half term and November, but they were also more than double the previous year’s performance in December too.