The Kings Cross area has been redeveloped extensively over the last ten years. Our brief was to launch Coal Drops Yard (the final piece of the redevelopment) as a new London shopping destination. October was a challenging time to open in retail terms. We needed to build awareness quickly and drive footfall ahead of the Christmas rush, and differentiate ourselves at launch from big box shopping malls. Perhaps more importantly, we also needed to make it clear that Coal Drops Yard is more than just an expensive retail destination - in order to offset accusations about the gentrification of the area.

We had a production budget of £125k and the launch campaign ran in press, OOH and social in London and the surrounding areas from 1st October to 30th November 2018.

Coal Drops Yard is thoughtfully curated. It includes local brands and one-off shops as well as bigger retailers. Unlike some shopping malls, the space isn’t crammed floor to ceiling with shops to get the most value per square foot. Instead it’s designed as a public space.

To reflect this, we wanted the campaign to showcase an alternative view of consumption. We wanted to redefine it as an experience everyone could be a part of. We presented Coal Drops Yard as a space for culture, dining, learning, history (and of course shopping). We brought this to life with a campaign that allowed our audience to be ‘all consumed’ in EVERYTHING Coal Drops Yard has to offer. We did this using beautiful visuals, in a campaign that was captured and created by the London creative community, and featuring our retailers – big and small.

The architecture of the building itself is the basis for the art direction – with the iconic and ownable shapes of Coal Drops Yard acting as frames for the design system, and a customised font based on the exact dimensions of the iconic arches.

The imagery we designed to support the retailer images was created by over 20 artists – each with a connection to the area. And, to reflect the fact that this needed to be a place that was inclusive and varied (not just one for expensive retail) the imagery includes portraits of local people, historical images and art from Central St Martin’s. Even the layouts were designed to allow people to explore - with a non-linear, non-templated and dynamic approach. The design was applied to hundreds of metres of hoardings around the site as well as in posters and print and across digital and social channels.

The campaign was adopted by retailers such as Paul Smith, COS and Tom Dixon who were all happy to contribute their visuals and brand names to be part of the campaign.

Just under a million Londoners are now aware of Coal Drops Yard and 77% of those aware of the campaign have gone on to visit - meaning we exceeded footfall targets set at launch.

It has been well received amongst the design and creative community (one of the key target audiences), with PR coverage in many key titles such as Design Week, It’s Nice That and Digital Arts.

In research, those that were aware of the campaign also responded well - with most people describing it as ‘unique’, ‘friendly’ and ‘creative’.