Clarks Village

The Challenge

ADPR won an agency tender process in 2016 to work with the management team for the UK’s first ever shopping outlet destination, Clarks Village. Officially opened in 1993, Clarks Village is a popular shopping destination in the heart of the South West. Renowned for a treasure trove of bargains and a plethora of designer and high street brands, our challenge was to refresh the brand’s communication, refocus the audience targets and support with seasonal events, new store activations and relevant stories to execute the Centre’s strategy.

“After concluding a very strong tender process back in spring 2016, it was a pleasure to work alongside the excellent team at ADPR to deliver on the strategy for Clarks Village. This involved among many others: a major increase in our PR focus as part of our marketing; with the arrival of many new brands to the Village launching these new brands / stores required strong release and launch plans; a growth in working with influencers and the transition from traditional print to more dynamic online platforms. The team at ADPR were always friendly and professional, thorough in their planning and execution and importantly able to deliver on time, within budget and demonstrate a strong ROI.”

Steve Burge. Marketing. Clarks Village.

The Solution

From launching the “best playpark in the world” (see more here), unveiling a multitude of exciting new designer and popular brands into the village, and welcoming everyone from Father Christmas, to local Olympians and TV favourites, over our four-year relationship we supported the Village connect with its local and wider audience, and drive footfall to the outlet.

We used traditional and digital media relations and communications tactics to share news and launches, and utilised our unbeatable local contacts to organise interviews, “first look” previews of new stores, and TV appearances to celebrate Village milestones – including the 25^th anniversary (read more about this here).

We got our creative juices flowing as we developed seasonal events for the centre – from cracking children’s crafts at Easter, family fun during the Summer holidays, back to school events and kicking off the festive season with a bang (on Bonfire Night!). We organised fun and immersive trails around the village, secured VIP guests and organised visits from influencers and local celebrities throughout the year.

We also worked with some of the key brand stores to host in-store fashion and beauty VIP evenings with lucky shoppers, featuring sumptuous beauty treatments, mini goodie bags and a glass (or two!) of bubbly to toast the evening.

The Results

Across the four years, we helped take Clarks Village from strength to strength. We worked closely with the regional media to ensure they always knew what was happening in the centre and gave them the inside scoop! We consistently secured coverage and interest in new store openings and brand launches, we secured beautiful fashion features and inclusion of Clarks Village in articles across the consumer and lifestyle media. We also supported the brand in maximising key sponsorships and award nominations, such as the Somerset Tourism Awards and Yeovil Literacy Festival.

Throughout our contract, we supported the marketing team with social media and internal communications advice and content recommendations, as well as offering crisis communications and issues management online and off-line whenever it was needed.

If you’d like a no-obligation discussion about your marketing communications, please get in touch with us on hello@adpr.co.uk or call 01460241641.