Real estate investment trust Shaftesbury has launched a Chinese New Year marketing campaign with a special Red Packet mobile app containing surprise discounts, exclusive London Chinatown offers and prizes.

The campaign kicked off at the end of January to celebrate to highlight the vibrancy and diversity of Chinatown London, one of the West End’s most iconic destinations, and the start of the Chinese New Year – 2017 is the Year of the Rooster.

The campaign showcases the area’s exciting variety of cuisine, which blends modernism with a genuine experience of East Asian culture and traditions.  Including digital marketing, a promotional Chinese New Year film and the bespoke app, the launch of the campaign coincides with a 170% increase Year-on-Year in traffic to the new Chinatown London bilingual website.

To showcase the cultural and culinary delights of Chinatown London, as well as the bold and authentic Chinese New Year 2017 celebrations, Shaftesbury commissioned a short promotional film to be hosted on the website and via social media channels.  Shot in an interlinking and fluid-movement style, the one-minute film features seven different cuisines available in Chinatown London that celebrate Chinese New Year in their regional cultures: Sichuan, Japanese, Indonesian, Cantonese, Vietnamese, Chinese Fusion and Malaysian.

Further adding to Chinatown London’s online marketing initiatives is the new app, available to download on Weibo and WeChat.  Traditionally, red packets, or hongboa, are exchanged in Chinese culture between family, friends and colleagues, and typically contain a monetary gift.  The new app allows users to open a virtual ‘red packet’ to reveal exclusive Chinatown London offers, ranging from big ticket prizes to discounts at restaurants.

The launch builds on the momentum generated by the new bilingual website for Chinatown London (www.chinatown.co.uk).

Shaftesbury commissioned Chinese digital marketing agency Qumin to create the website.  Displaying content in both Chinese and English, the website enables more people to discover the best of London’s Chinatown.  The popularity of the website reflects the growth of internet users in China, which reached 668 million people in June 2015, 90% of whom access the internet via a smartphone or tablet.

Commenting on the initiatives and success of the website, Karen Baines, Head of Group Marketing and Communications at Shaftesbury, says: “The Chinese New Year campaign aims to expand our audiences’ perceptions, cementing Chinatown London’s status as one of the most exciting destinations for food, entertainment and unique East Asian experiences in London.  We are curating the very best of East Asia in the heart of London’s West End, mixing the modern and the traditional.”

Baines adds: “Our new website has been created to make discovering Chinatown London as easy as possible for visitors, be they from the UK or overseas, including the growing numbers of Chinese consumers online.  The website has been particularly successful in helping visitors to enjoy the diversity and vibrancy of Chinatown London at the click of a button.  In conjunction with the new app and film, the campaign will boost awareness of the lively and exciting Chinatown community and all it has to offer.”

The launch coincides with the success of Chinatown London’s Chinese New Year celebrations for the Year of the Rooster, which saw in excess of 500,000 visitors on Sunday, January 29th.  The largest of its kind in Europe, the celebration showcased a varied cultural line-up including performances from China, as well as the best of British Chinese performers.

Shaftesbury is a Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT) which owns a unique real estate portfolio extending to 14 acres in the heart of London’s West End. Shaftesbury focuses on retail, restaurants and leisure and its portfolio comprises 589 shops, restaurants, cafes and pubs, extending to 1 million sq. ft., 406,000 sq. ft. of offices and 539 apartments. Its holdings are concentrated in Carnaby Street, Seven Dials, Covent Garden, Chinatown, Soho and Charlotte Street.

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The Trinidad and Tobago Tourist Board (UK) is running an experiential campaign on Saturday 1st and Sunday 2nd October 2016 at Manchester’s Trafford Centre, to promote the launch of Thomas Cook’s flights from Manchester to Tobago, starting 13 November 2016.

Experiential agency Kreate has put together the Island of Tobago experience, which features a 13m x 5m stand with a palm tree border effect, so physically creating an island in the shopping centre.

True to Tobago, the island will embrace the tropical look and feel and visitors will be fully immersed in the culture of the country, brought to life by an array of activities. Four zones within the island will all offer a unique experience:

• Relaxation – a relaxing beach setting, featuring a reception desk and brand ambassadors who will meet and greet guests to give them an overview of the island and the experiences they can immerse themselves in.
• Adventure – a physical-digital biking challenge with prompts to showcase various sites across the island to entertain the more adventurous.
• Nightlife – a limbo challenge accompanied by a MC and jazz music featuring videos of various popular night life locations for party-goers.
• Scuba – an opportunity for all scuba and snorkelling enthusiasts to have their photo taken behind a tropical fish tank for a scuba selfie.

Visitors start at an airport-style check-in desk, then travel through the zones, from one experience to another. Digital signage between zones will introduce each experience and footage relating to theme will be available on TV screens. Staff will be on-hand to answer questions, direct visitors to the dedicated microsite and capture data for those who would like more information post-event.

Visitors can take advantage of exclusive offers and take part in various competitions, including the ultimate prize of flights and accommodation for two people. Throughout the two days the experience is live, there will be incentive prizes for Leaderboard activity on the interactive stands.

Visitors will be encouraged to share their experience with friends and family via their own personal social channels.

Activity will be supported by a social campaign geo-targeting consumers within a 60km radius of Manchester Airport with an interest in Caribbean travel.

Sheona Walker, Promotions Analyst, Tobago UK, says: “We wanted Mancunians to live and feel our island and to really bring it alive. Kreate have certainly met the brief and recreated an authentic, emotive experience, which we are confident will engage with shoppers and deliver results. The Tobago Island experience allows consumers to be educated about the destination and immerse themselves in the location – before they decide to buy.”

Duncan McCaslin, MD of Kreate, adds: “Today’s traveller is all about seeking out new experiences. We created the Tobago Island with this in mind. An opportunity for visitors to feel the brand story and live the island experience. We’re confident the work will give the highest expression of the island.”

Kreate is an award-winning Experiential Marketing and Promotional Staffing agency with offices in London, Dublin, Sydney and Auckland. Clients include Budweiser, Mattel, NHS, Stella Artois, Swatch, Warner Bros and Proximo.

Trinidad & Tobago is the southern-most Caribbean island nation, located seven miles east of the Venezuelan coast. The country is home to the largest Carnival celebration in the Caribbean and ranked the happiest nation in the Caribbean in 2013 and 2015, according to the United Nations’ World Happiness Report. It is the birthplace of both limbo dancing and the world famous steelpan, the only acoustic instrument invented in the 20th century.

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