Shopping centre owner intu has launched Big Bugs On Tour, a national experiential roadshow that brings adults and children face-to-face with 12 giant British bugs at 13 intu shopping centres nationwide.

The initiative is being backed by naturalist Chris Packham and features 12 supersized, indigenous bugs including the honeybee, ladybird, hornet, swallowtail butterfly and the nut weevil. It launched at intu Lakeside last week where it will be on display until the end of July before moving around the UK over the next 15 months, visiting 12 other intu centres around the country including intu Trafford Centre, intu Metrocentre and intu Braehead, between now and September 2019.

Roger Binks, Customer Experience Director for intu, says: “Over 35 million people shop at intu centres every year so we hope bringing them face-to-face with these giant British bugs can make a real impact in how they interact and reconnect with nature, and ensure they are happier than when they arrived.”

The campaign, which into says aims to reconnect kids and adults to nature, comes as research shows children are now better at identifying Pokemon characters than there are at recognising British wildlife, despite a £10m pledge from Government to encourage children to get closer to nature.

Research by intu found that almost four in five parents (78%) want their children to be more connected to nature and 86% think they spend too much time looking at screens. However, one in six children in the UK (17%) have not set foot in a park or forest in the last 12 months.

One in five children (21%) were unable to correctly identify a bee while one in four children (25%) have not seen a caterpillar in over a year. One in ten kids (10%) did not know honey came from bees.

Adults were also lacking in their bug knowledge, with one in four (25%) unable to tell the difference between a bee and a wasp and a quarter (25%) unable to correctly identify a grasshopper.

Over a third of adults (35 per cent) of adults say they see far fewer bugs in their gardens now than five years ago with nearly half (49 per cent) saying they are worried about the decline in insects but didn’t know how to help.

Intu’s Roger Binks adds: “We know that a closer connection to nature makes people happier and Big Bugs on Tour is an opportunity to help educate adults and children on the importance of the bugs in their gardens and put a smile on their faces.”

Naturalist Chris Packham observes: “We are facing a crisis in our countryside. I haven’t seen a single butterfly in my garden this year and more needs to be done to reconnect people with nature and start caring for and realising the importance of the bugs in your backyard. intu’s Big Bugs on Tour is shining a big magnifying glass on this and also putting bugs into school classrooms, and is a fantastic initiative to alert to the importance of nature in our lives.”

In addition to visiting into shopping centres, Big Bugs on Tour will also be inspiring school classes around the country to help children learn more about bugs.

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Westfield London, more used to crowds of shoppers thronging its halls, was turned into a racetrack for a content marketing drive featuring DS Automobiles’ new electric car.

A film released by DS Automobiles shows Formula E racing driver Sam Bird taking the brand’s concept car for a secret after-hours spin inside Westfield London, marking the UK debut of the high-performance DS E-TENSE vehicle.

The behind-closed-doors footage shows Bird, a DS Virgin Racing driver and the third-highest all-time Formula E points scorer, behind the wheel of the all-electric vehicle. As the camera pans away it becomes clear he is driving indoors, past many of the high-street and high-end stores that call the major retail destination in White City home.

Westfield Brand Ventures, a division of the shopping centre operators which offers tailored propositions to brands to deliver consumer engagement throughout the retail journey, worked with DS Automobiles on arranging special permission for Bird to drive the DS E-TENSE indoors after closing time.

The footage was recorded at night inside Westfield London, soon to become Europe’s largest shopping centre when a £600 million Phase 2 expansion opens in March 2018.

Paul Buttigieg, Westfield’s Director of Operations, says: “We like to go the extra mile for our partners to help them create innovative content to drive awareness and sales. Giving a leading racing driver the green light to take a spin inside one of our centres was a real first but having built such a positive relationship with DS Automobiles over the past few years we wanted to help them create a standout moment to mark the UK debut of the DS E-TENSE, and the soon-to-be-launched DS 7 CROSSBACK.”

DS Automobiles has partnered with Westfield London since 2015, opening its flagship DS Urban Store in 2016. The digitally-enabled boutique concept invites visitors to explore the lifestyle of the Parisian-born brand at one of London’s premium shopping destinations.

Mark Blundell, UK Marketing Director at DS Automobiles, adds: “The avant-garde spirit of design present in every DS car aligns perfectly with some of the world’s most luxurious names in fashion located in Westfield London. This remains the perfect location for our brand and Westfield continues to help us find new and creative ways to engage an extremely high footfall audience.”

First unveiled at the 2016 Geneva Motor Show, the DS E-TENSE concept car perfectly blends state-of-the-art technology and avant-garde design with unique styling. Fittingly, the model Bird can be seen driving in the film is an exclusive metallic ametrine green; the zero-emissions DS E-TENSE delivers propulsion that is clean, silent, efficient and powerful.

Westfield’s Brand Ventures works collaboratively with partners to maximise revenue and deliver an enhanced customer experience across its portfolio of physical and digital assets within Westfield London and Westfield Stratford City.

DS Automobiles is a luxury car marque which is part of Groupe PSA, which owns the Peugeot, Citroën, DS Automobiles, Opel and Vauxhall Motors brands. DS aims to revive the tradition of premium vehicles in the French automotive industry, perpetuating the values of innovation and distinction inherited from the first DS, launched in 1955. DS also supports year-round artistic and cultural activities based around fashion, design, art and gastronomy.

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Shopping centre operators Bluewater has launched a new festive integrated campaign, “Christmas is here. Make it magical”, including a TV ad, press, digital, social, radio, outdoor, point of sale and in-mall media.

The TV campaign launched last week and features a wide-eyed six-year old girl and a CGI incarnation of one of Bluewater’s iconic illuminated reindeer, who appear annually at Bluewater to signify the start of Christmas for thousands of visitors.

The activity, which was put together for Bluewater by creative agency 23red, highlights the yuletide festivities available at the retail and leisure destination this year.

The creative idea encourages consumers to leave their world-weary adult lives behind and to see Christmas through the eyes of a child once again, embracing the magic of Bluewater during the festive period.

David Wilkinson, Head of Marketing at Bluewater, says: “Christmas is such a magical time at Bluewater and the giant reindeer have become iconic symbols in recent years. We’re expecting over 27 million visitors this season and we hope that each one feels a sense of joy as they see the ads and begin their own festive traditions.”

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