Warwick Mall is 40 years old. And like any 40 year-old it was beginning to show its age. Add catastrophic floods in the spring of 2010, and the planned “facelift” for later that year was accelerated by the mall’s owners.

 

In what was a hotly contested bidding process for the mall rebranding assignment, North Star won out over several other RI agencies. The major task was to reinvigorate a brand that was a bit tired. Add to that the fact that since the last Warwick Mall brand massage, the shopping landscape has dramatically changed with the arrival of Providence Place.

 

North Star was charged with “polishing” the existing brand by making it more contemporary, fun and youthful. The big caveat was not to lose the existing Warwick Mall personality and reputation of being a family-oriented shopping experience.

 

We also recognized that during the post flood construction period stores were reopening sporadically. While the Mall was open for business, shoppers who visited the mall had to feel that they weren’t shopping in a ghost town. We created a “Preview” campaign that allowed store fronts to have signage teasing their reopening as well as teasing customers as to what was coming. We supported the “Preview” with newspaper and online promotion.

 

Everything we did during the “Preview” and the Grand Opening revolved around a new logo and color palette. The logo needed to capture the essence of the Warwick Mall shopping experience. The color palette needed to appeal to younger shoppers without turning off older shoppers. Mall signage, the new website, store reopening signage (due to flooding), the 40th Birthday Celebration, advertising and invitations were all inspired by the new logo and color palette.

 

Warwick Mall has retained 95% of its pre-flood tenants and has welcomed new retailers to the mall since the floods. From all indications, while the economy is still recovering, the mall is currently seeing the customer counts it enjoyed pre-flood and pre-recession.

 

 

Logo, Website, Newspaper, Advertising, Video, Grand Opening & 40th Birthday Party event support, Twitter, Facebook, Crisis Management

 

 

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