Events & Experiences
Following a hugely successful and award-winning Christmas campaign at Victoria Place, Woking last year (results can be found here – https://www.almarketing.com/our_work/creating-award-worthy-campaigns/), we proposed building on ‘The Forgotten Toys’ initiative this year to make it even bigger and better than before, with one of our core objectives being to increase toy donations by 10% and receive over 3,000 toys.
Instead of the toys being donated to the grotto (as we did last year), this year we have setup a separate ‘Toy Donation Station’, transforming an un-utilised unit at Victoria Place into an enticing space for families to donate and enjoy. An enchanting campaign narrative has been developed, bringing to life Santa’s Chief Elf Sparkle who will be in the station collecting all the toys. A fully immersive experience has been created in the unit taking families on a journey from donating their toys to ‘Sparkle’ and receiving a kindness certificate for their efforts, to having an opportunity to press the button on Sparkle’s kindness counter. This totals the number of toys donated, all whilst being surrounded by a display of magical toys.
We have also launched Victoria Place’s very own Christmas bear, ‘Freddy the Festive Bear’. We have incentivised the toy donations drive by offering a free teddy for every 100th toy donation received. Freddy will also come to life as a mascot that will roam around and enliven the centre on Saturdays during the event period.
A range of toy-related activities are also part of the campaign, including meeting Santa in his toy workshop and ‘The Forgotten Toys’ storytelling.
Over 200 toy donations were received in the first weekend alone, setting us well on the way to achieving our overall donations target. Two very happy children took home their very own ‘Freddy the Festive Bear’, to help remember their magical, festive experience at Victoria Place. So far the social channels have gained a total reach of 29,457.
