Blue Back Square in West Hartford, Connecticut is a different kind of retail destination. Not a mall. Not an open air shopping center. More like a structured downtown. Great retailers. Terrific restaurants. Superb weekly entertainment. So why aren't people flocking to shop there? Certainly, the economy doesn't help. But what else is going on?
We needed to find an impetus to drive people back to Blue Back. The more people in the stores, the more chance of purchases. Our insight was concise: for example, have you ever been to a restaurant when only 2 or 3 tables were occupied? You likely subconsciously thought the food wasn't very good. When a place is packed with people, or filled with excitement, consumers associate it with quality and buy more because of it. So, we needed to simply remind people why Blue Back was so special. What made it so unique.
In order to differentiate Blue Back Square, we emphasized its most unique quality – that its essence harkens back to when going downtown, shopping or dining, was an experience unto itself.
Creatively, we took what is a very contemporary venue and infused it with 40's and 50's era flourishes. For television, each frame of the vintage characters was painstakingly rotoscoped to make them black and white. The juxtaposition of vintage characters interacting in the modern-day space helped definine the "vibe" that consumers postively identify with.
Campaign media included television, radio, print and online (with a microsite to measure interest specifically generated by the campaign).
Additionally, strategic public relations efforts yielded news coverage of the television & advertising shoot as our team and production crews took over the streets around the Square.
