MERRY HILL
Challenge
Portland won a 10-way pitch to work with Ellandi to generate a new brand and vision for merry hill shopping centre in Dudley, West Midlands, UK. This forms part of a 5 year multi million £ investment into the centre, with the ambition for Merry hill to be a top family entertainment destination by 2025.
The centre faced tough competition from the nearby Bullring in Birmingham and so we needed to create a new narrative that would set merry hill apart, attract new audiences without alienating its very loyal customers.
Approach
A large workshop (nearly 50 attendees) that included centre staff, investors, leasing agents and operators was conducted to uncover the truths and ambitions for merry hill.
We carried out detailed data analysis of the current site, local and surrounding demographics, against footfall and spend and plotted this against robust trend analytics to get the true picture of what the future model needed to look like. It was clear that there was a real desire to create something that went way beyond retail and offered greater diversity for the local community and authentically represented their needs and future lifestyles.
Results
The new merry hill brand was launched in late September of this year but already people are excited to see and feel the change.
People feel like they’ve been listened to and can play a part in the evolvement of the new brand and the experiences it promotes.
Local start-ups are being integrated within the retail space, an increase in more bespoke food and beverage offers, new leisure offers are being added and relationships with arts, culture and education groups are helping to spearhead a new focus on merry hill being the ‘heart of the region’.
