Paragon Outlets Livermore Valley Grand Opening
Client: Paragon Outlet Partners + Paragon Outlets Livermore Valley
Title: Paragon Outlets Livermore Valley Grand Opening
Category: Market Entry/Ground Up Strategy
Challenge:
Paragon Outlet Partners turned to Strategy+Style Marketing Group, not to merely duplicate, but exceed its executional performance and stellar results with the development and implementation of an grand opening strategy for the second outlet center property in its development pipeline: Paragon Outlets Livermore Valley, the first new center than would open in California in more than a decade. Located nearly a one-hour drive away from the densely populated San Francisco and Oakland regions, Strategy+Style inherently knew that in addition to the local community, expanding its marketing messaging regionally would be critical to drive traffic to the new shopping venue during grand opening weekend and beyond.
Approach:
Beginning with a construction groundbreaking ceremony and a leasing momentum announcement series keeping both the retail real estate industry and consumers-at-large updated, and ending with an aggressive regional consumer advertising effort and robust schedule of grand opening weekend activities, Strategy+Style effectively targeted all core audience constituencies as it began work to create industry awareness, local support and consumer excitement for what would become the region’s state-of-the-art shopping destination for leading designer brands.
Tactics:
- Construction Groundbreaking Event:
- With state and local government officials speaking alongside the Paragon Outlet Partners executive team to officially announce outlet center construction plans and discuss positive local economic development, Strategy+Style executed a groundbreaking ceremony event 15 months ahead of grand opening weekend with media members hailing from Livermore, San Francisco and Oakland in attendance to capture and spread the news.
- Leasing Momentum Promotion:
- Immediately following its groundbreaking ceremony, Strategy+Style began a series of strategically-timed leasing momentum announcements, continuously delivering updates that targeted both trade industry and regional consumer media about the center’s construction progression and quickly growing, committed tenant collection.
- Hard Hat Tour:
- Held approximately 10 weeks before the official grand opening, Strategy+Style hosted dignitaries, government representatives and media members for an advance tour of the center. Complete with more than 100 attendees, guests and media heard ownership representatives give a progress update at this invitation-only event.
- Grand Opening Weekend:
- Following Strategy+Style’s creative and design work to establish Paragon Outlets Livermore Valley’s overall branding approach across all consumer touch points including the center’s website, on-site collateral and print/broadcast advertising elements, among others, an aggressive, grand opening-specific regional advertising plan was put into place. Advertising elements included a comprehensive mix of:
- Online banner ad campaigns
- Retargeting efforts
- Social communications initiatives
- Regional broadcast television advertising flighting
- Newspaper, magazine and tourism digital and print advertising
- Beginning Thursday, Nov. 8 through Sunday, Nov. 11, Strategy+Style planned and orchestrated a “rolling thunder” series of special event activities to ensure heavy traffic and sales throughout the four-day weekend including:
- Early shopper preview events held at each of the outlet center’s trio of anchor stores (Bloomingdale’s, The Outlet Store, Last Call by Neiman Marcus and Saks Fifth Avenue OFF 5TH) the evening before the center’s official grand opening.
- A highly-visual Champagne & Confetti Grand Opening Ceremony.
- A unique partnership with Diablo magazine, a leading San Francisco Bay lifestyle magazine, to host an exclusive VIP Grand Opening Party for the first 300 shoppers in attendance. This tactic hijacked the magazine’s readers into the center’s VIP Privilege Club.
- Collaboration with the Livermore Valley Winegrowers Association to hold “Sunset, Sip & Shop,” an on-site wine tasting and shopping event.
- Following Strategy+Style’s creative and design work to establish Paragon Outlets Livermore Valley’s overall branding approach across all consumer touch points including the center’s website, on-site collateral and print/broadcast advertising elements, among others, an aggressive, grand opening-specific regional advertising plan was put into place. Advertising elements included a comprehensive mix of:
Results:
- From the time of the outlet center’s groundbreaking, leasing marketing support contributed to the impressive growth of Paragon Outlets Livermore Valley rich luxury and leading brand name tenant collection. Paragon Outlets Livermore Valley opened at 98% leased.
- Consumer traffic remained high and steady throughout the center’s four-day grand opening celebration. Over 50,000 VIP Coupon Books were distributed over the four-day weekend
- More than 1,000 customers waited more than three hours in line to attend Diablo Magazine’s VIP Grand Opening Party, an event planned for just 300 shoppers to attend.
Immediately following the outlet center’s debut, ownership sold the outlet center at an impressive profit to Simon Property Group. The successfully-performing shopping destination expanded its square footage with Phase II and remains among the most productive sales per square foot centers in the country.
View More Case Studies:
