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AREL First Street

“We made our choice based on their knowledge of the Manchester office market place and the property industry coupled with the presentation of a really creative campaign. They demonstrated a thorough understanding of the personality of our scheme branding proposition and our target audiences. They have worked with us at First Street now for over 18 months and have secured some great coverage which has really put the scheme on the map both locally and in a national context too.”
John Hughes, Managing Director, ASK Developments

Question

RDPR was initially appointed by ASK Developments in January 2014 to deliver a communications  campaign to support the development of Manchester’s £500m First Street estate. The creation of a cultural hub at First Street was a fundamental part of Sir Howard’s Bernstein’s vision to position Manchester world-class city. We sat on the marketing steering committee throughout the development phase of the project and played an active role in the launch in May 2015.

As the estate has emerged Roland Dransfield’s role has evolved and today we remain an integral part of the estate’s delivery team, working to the new owners of the estate PATRIZIA, and its site management team at CBRE.

First Street has rapidly become the North’s premier location for the arts and is anchored by HOME and Melia’s INNSIDE hotel as well as Q-Park, Vita Student and operators including The Laundrette, Kettlebell Kitchen, Gasworks Brew Bar, Bunny Jackson’s, Wood Manchester, Junkyard Golf and Indian Tiffin Room, amongst others.

Create

RDPR was initially tasked with supporting and amplifying the development and letting strategy and putting First Street on the map. More recently the focus has been on creating a sense of ‘Place’ at a location that was considered a little way out of town by some. Working with team at CBRE we have developed a campaign that created extensive media coverage, on-line engagement and increased footfall.

  • Supported the letting strategy with a series of announcements including the sign-up of occupiers, Jacobs, Amaze, Auto Trader, Ford Credit Europe and Gazprom into Number One and No8 First Street..
  • Introduced the scheme to key journalists both nationally and regionally with media tours, interviews with the team, speaker and networking opportunities plus a detailed occupier focus piece
  • RDPR delivered a fully integrated campaign which consisted of media relations, social media, paid-for digital campaign and oversaw all strategic marketing planning
  • Supported the on-site events programme including the closing ceremony for the Manchester International Festival and the Manchester Ice Rink

Deliver

Roland Dransfield has been an integral part of the First Street team for over 5 years. We continually adapt the campaign strategy to support the evolution of the estate. 2017 saw the F&B units all fully let and 2018 will continue to position First Street as a leading leisure destination for visitors to the city.

Analyse

  • 20,000 Skaters joined in the fun at First Street’s Manchester ice rink
  • 40% Increase in trade reported by tenants across the estate
  • Fully-let Estate which is home to market leading F&B operators and some of Manchester’s leading businesses