Hughes Public Relations, Adelaide

Projects

• SEA Gas
• The Marina Hindmarsh Island

Capital Raising

• Petratherm
• Clean Seas Tuna Limited

Digital

• St Patrick's College
• Cool Rules
• Aussie BBQ Legends
• Crowne Plaza 'Tweet Yourself'
• Beerenberg

Community Engagement

• Red Nose Day for SIDS and Kids
• South Eastern Professional Fisherman’s Association

Issues Management

• Harris Scarfe
• Transitions Optical
• Nippy's
• Sabco
• Kingston Estate Wines

Brand Building

• Crowne Plaza
• Harris Scarfe
• Urban Pacific
• Harbour Town
• Beerenberg

Health

Events

• Shorts Film Festival
• Canunda Wind Farm
• Adelaide Motor Show
• Solar Cities Congress
• BankSA

Business-to-Business

• BankSA Business Focus
• San Remo

Harbour Town
Making brand direct shopping a real event.

The Situation. Harbour Town at West Beach, Adelaide, is South Australia’s first purpose-built brand direct shopping complex and the second Harbour Town complex in Australia, following the initial centre on the Gold Coast.

Strategically located seven kilometres from the city on Tapleys Hill Road, a major north-south route through Adelaide’s western suburbs, Harbour Town adjoins the Adelaide Airport and offers some 12,500 square metres of lettable area in variable shop sizes fronting internal pedestrian-only streets.

It is a joint venture between the Australian real estate development arm of the international financial services group ING and the Australian Lewis Land Group. When Harbour Town opened in October 2003 it introduced to Adelaide a defined precinct of stores selling quality merchandise “brand direct” to the public all year round at discounts of up to 60 per cent on retail pricing.

In brand direct precincts, quality designers and manufacturers sell a range of quality merchandise direct to customers, through signature outlets, rather than the normal retail channels. The range includes store label stock produced for brand direct sale and first-quality, end-of-season lines. The brand direct outlets are larger than fashion boutiques, carry greater stock volume and often feature their own brand-themed fit-outs.

A key aspect of the launch of Harbour Town was to generate substantial publicity to attract brand direct devotees and first-time shoppers, and capture a strong share of the pre-Christmas retail focus to generate good opening sales revenue for tenants.

Objectives. A PR company was required to help build the awareness and anticipation of Harbour Town as it neared completion, as well as generating maximum pre-opening and opening publicity.

The campaign was devised to provide a steady stream of stories and media coverage in the pre-opening phase, without “saturating” media and public interest. It aimed to:

• Raise awareness of Harbour Town in South Australia;
• Build the Harbour Town brand;
• Educate the public about brand direct shopping;
• Create a demand that would translate into strong shopper participation in the opening phase.

Elements. The six-month publicity campaign used a variety of techniques, story concepts and news media to maximise exposure. Major news leads developed included:

• Appointments of Harbour Town executives;
• Construction milestones;
• Major “brand” tenancies signed;
• Second wave of tenancies signed;
• Feature on the changing face of retailing;
• Tourism stories for tourism publications;
• Pre-opening fashion shoots;
• Pre-opening stories on menswear, women’s fashion, children’s fashion and homewares;
• Column writer leads;
• Media “hard hat” pre-opening tour;
• Newspaper supplement to mark the opening;
• VIP event;
• Public opening.

Outcome. News coverage in the lead-up period was strong, generating wide public interest in the opening, which was a phenomenal success.

The crowds on opening day reached close to 20,000, generating traffic congestion that led the SA Police to introduce traffic diversions and issue a news release asking motorists to be patient as they waited to enter Harbour Town. The public interest and excitement was tangible.

Retailer feedback was extremely positive – many tenants reporting they had achieved their four-day “opening budget” (Thursday to Sunday) by the end of the Thursday trading. This initial publicity campaign also contributed to ongoing interest in Harbour Town.

In the months following the official launch, visitor numbers to the Centre remained consistently high, with weekend crowds continuing to surpass expectations.

Given Harbour Town opened two days prior to the introduction of Sunday trading in the suburbs in South Australia, the constant flow of traffic to the Centre was excellent. The timing of its opening meant increased competition for Harbour Town with all other major suburban shopping centres, despite which it continued to attract high volumes of customers to the point where traffic congestion around the Centre on weekends remained an issue.

Overall, the publicity campaign was an outstanding success and contributed to a high awareness of Harbour Town, Brand Direct shopping and continued interest in Adelaide’s newest shopping complex.