The Christmas in Leicester campaign and programme of events has been established since 2016 and takes place in the city centre from mid-November to early January. Each year the Christmas campaign theme changes, and the creative design and promotional materials reflect that annual theme across all marketing channels. Under the umbrella of the Christmas In Leicester brand are a range of activities that require marketing which include the Jubilee Square Ice Rink, Santa in the Square, and the Nativity Scene at Town Hall Square.
In 2021, Arch successfully won a tender to carry out the marketing campaign. The brief was to promote the range of attractions around the city centre, with a strong focus on the main commercial activity, The Jubilee Square Ice Rink. Importantly, we also needed to help rebuild consumer confidence and create a positive perception of the city as a safe place to visit during the Christmas season.
We kicked off by looking at brand names which would be memorable and effective in delivering brand love for Christmas in Leicester. We decided on the name ‘Festive Adventure’.
‘Christmas in Leicester: Festive Adventure’ rolls off the tongue, and infers a sense of excitement, helping to communicate the different experiences to be found in the public spaces. We wanted families to travel across the city and take part in all of the little activities the programme had to offer, and created a brand and Festive Adventure trail map to highlight them.
We developed the campaign so that it communicated the emotion of Christmas, appealing to family traditions and memories, but in a modern, diverse way. With a focus on selling ice rink tickets, we developed a series of animated festive characters which skated through the different festive adventures around the city centre, helping to build an understanding of the trail of events and attractions going on, whilst also creating a fun and engaging campaign which was totally fresh and new to anything previously produced.
As well as media planning, buying and delivery, we developed a wide range of marketing materials including a fold-out trail map incorporated into a flyer, advertising towers positioned throughout the streets, a website which included a dedicated ticket sales function, and digital out-of-home ads featuring the characters, complete with animated falling snow.
We also carried out a comprehensive social media campaign which brought the penguin and snowman to life, and developed a nostalgic Christmas story which was animated into a short film, and used at the heart of the campaign.
Take a look at our social campaign and animation here.
The Christmas in Leicester campaign was one of the most successful to date, helping to secure maximum ticket sales for the ice rink and achieving all of the client’s objectives. There was also a consistently high footfall, helping to support the range of business sectors and promoting the wide range of activities to attract visitors to stay for longer.
