Currys is the UK's largest electrical retailer with a high profile. However, little PR/promotion is undertaken locally for stores to engage with the community (the only specific marketing acivity is occasional seasonal advertising). Five selected stores with the older internal layout were identified to be refitted to a new design, which meant closing the store for up to 10 days. At the same time, staff underwent customer service and product training so that they were ready for the store re-opening.
The store re-openings were to be treated as grand re-launch weekends with additional nationwide.
Strategy & Plan
• BPR researched local media
• BPR drafted and issued a press release to local press for each store
• BPR negotiated a competition to win a £1,300 LCD TV with key local paid newspapers (in tandem with booked advertising), placed over a two-week period in:- Crewe Chronicle (21,433 circulation), Wiltshire Times (19,456), West Sussex County Times (33,311), Richmond & Twickenham Times (16,582)
• BPR arranged with local paper to photograph the winner in-store for a follow-up news piece
• BPR designed and printed i posters and provided box for entry forms
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Results
• Each store achieved good sales revenues over the launch weekends
• The competitions helped to attract footfall and attracted a lot of interest in the local catchment area, with hundreds of competition entries per store (e.g. Trowbridge had over 600)
• Stores reported increased footfall and competition entries in the week before the 'hard' opening solely through the PR effort (as it was before the advertising appeared)
• The visibility within the local newspapers was high as the competition appeared on front pages of each key paper, in addition to 'fill-ins' inside and good coverage on the competition page
• The competition model worked well alongside the advertising, boosting the overall coverage of the Currys brand
