Paul Smith heads north

Paul Smith opened its Leeds store in 2007 – its most northerly store, situated in the achingly cool Victoria Quarter. It seemed like an obvious move for the brand: Leeds was booming and the appetite for designer fashion at the time was insatiable. We were asked to think about how we could effectively tell the Paul Smith brand story to help increase footfall in the store and impact on sales.

Tactical ideas

The people of Leeds simply didn’t know the Paul Smith story. To raise awareness, we planned a series of easy-to-implement tactical ideas. Our first was to bring the iconic Paul Smith Mini to Leeds – the perfect way to get the attention of the people. The second was to make the store more obviously Paul Smith. The branding was minimal, in line with their high-end fashion image, but we suggested a few adjustments that made it very hard to miss.

Part of the establishment

The Mini arrived amid a blaze of publicity for Leeds Shopping Week in November 2009. Supported by a series of events and social media activity, the event proved to be a huge success. It delivered the huge impact we hoped for and helped raise the awareness to much higher levels. The Leeds store began trading above expectations and soon became firmly established in the city.