INSIGHT

Opening to great anticipation in 2021, Edinburgh’s biggest retail and leisure district, St James Quarter boasts a wide-ranging mix of leading brands. But by 2023, when the destination was no longer new news, a new set of challenges came into play.

Investors had set a challenging footfall growth target of 10% for 2023 – to put that into context, the UK was projecting only 4%. But Lane Media love a challenge and were brought on board to work with the Quarter’s growing marketing team and their creative agency partner in 2022. The task was clear, to remind local and visiting audiences that the unexpected is just around the Quarter.

IDEA

We had our savvy shopping list to hand. A rich, layered and considered media plan covered year-round activity and special events based on the Quarter’s series of ‘moments’ to drive footfall through unexpected activations.

Tactical placements varied by ‘moment’ and included strategic buys like geo-fenced activity around competitor shopping areas in the central belt and pinpoint targeting at train stations on key routes to the city. Out of Home was used to reinforce campaign messages, with significant investment in activations at Edinburgh Airport and with Edinburgh Trams – making sure travellers knew that the Quarter was the perfect detour.

High profile partnerships with the likes of The Scotsman and Grazia, with a 6-page feature in Grazia’s Luxury issue running UK wide, supported key ‘moments’ Seafood Festival and Edinburgh Style respectively.

IMPACT

People got our message and put it straight in their baskets.

We bagged absolute proof that the unexpected certainly was just around the Quarter when our ambitious objective of 10% increase in footfall was exceeded with growth of 16% and a grand total of 18.9M visitors – that’s 1.1M over target. This result is even more impressive in finishing 5x the average footfall growth in the rest of the UK (3.3%).

St James Quarter has significantly bolstered its position as Edinburgh’s new Style Hub, with new, exciting brands and even more just around the corner (or Quarter). Sales were also up more than expected at 14% in what was a challenging period of storms, rail strikes and rising living costs.

It just shows, when you use right media to find the right people, you can expect the right outcome.