The Challenge

For the past three years, we have worked with Cribbs Causeway on their Christmas marketing campaigns to drive footfall to The Mall and sell tickets to their Winter Wonderland events. For Christmas 2021, Cribbs decided to do things slightly differently and put on a Paddington™ themed Christmas grotto where kids could meet Santa and everyone’s favourite marmalade loving bear!

Cribbs had a limited number of spaces for both the grotto meet and greets with Paddington and Santa as well as weekday ‘Storytime’ sessions.

Our challenge was to create and carry out a media campaign to promote both and direct customers to book their place and buy a ticket via a third-party booking system.

The Strategy

After a miserable Christmas in 2020, we knew there would be a huge pent-up demand for family activities in 2021. Our strategy was therefore to make sure we reached parents and grandparents as they researched their options in the run-up to the festive period. Splitting our modest budget between Facebook, Instagram and paid search advertising, we targeted users within an hour’s drive-time of the centre and optimised our campaign towards online ticket bookings.

The Creative Solution 

Partnering closely with Canal+ via Copyright (IP owners of Paddington™), we developed a creative approach that reflected the charming pop-up book style featured in the recent Paddington™ feature films. We then produced a range of promotional assets that were rolled-out through the digital advertising campaign, along with the Cribbs Causeway website, in-centre posters, vinyl sheets, floor stickers, display adverts, bus stop signage and much more.

We even created promotional assets for a classic London red bus which was stationed at The Mall, as well as the photo wallets which housed the photos taken with Santa and Paddington for each visitor.

The Business Impact

Our campaign started on 1st November and Cribbs were thrilled that all places were sold out by 16th December! Our efficient media strategy combined with Paddington’s™ pulling power reduced our cost-per-conversion via paid social by more than 45% compared to the 2019 campaign. Despite spending 37% less on Facebook advertising than the 2019 campaign, we managed to deliver over 450 more click-outs to the ticket site from paid social.