A wide-scale ‘Christmas in Newbury’ marketing campaign has recently been launched by Newbury Business Improvement District (BID), the not-for-profit organisation behind our Visit Newbury brand. We’ve been allocated up to £38,000 by West Berkshire Council specifically for the campaign, as part of the new Welcome Back Fund via the European Regional Development Fund (EDRF).
The aim of the project is to help establish Newbury’s sense of place and future proof the high street by developing the town to become one of the South of England’s key Christmas destinations. This ties in with the overall purpose of the funding, which was formed to support town centre recovery and the safe return of visitors to our high streets following the pandemic.
The Christmas campaign titled ‘12 Days of Newbury’ is the first of its kind for Newbury, and we’re making sure no stone is left unturned to spread the festive message far and wide. The highlight of the campaign is Newbury’s first-ever TV advert, which launched across Sky TV and Virgin Media on 19th October. You can watch the TV advert online by visiting the campaign’s eponymous webpage: 12DaysofNewbury.com.
The campaign is highly geo-targeted to reach the target audience of those who live up to one and a half hours’ from Newbury, with a specific focus on the eastern and western areas, such as Reading and Swindon.
Our marketing strategy covers outdoor, digital, and print promotion of the Christmas campaign, which outlines everything to do in Newbury this festive season, including the likes of our three-day Victorian Christmas Fayre, Christmas Lights Switch-On Festival, and Christmas events delivered by a range of local organisations, such as the Corn Exchange. You can see the full list of events happening in Newbury this Christmas here: 12DaysofNewbury.com.
A key example of the type of media being used to help raise the profile of Newbury as a Christmas destination to a wider audience is the Reading Lights double-sided digital billboard, located outside of Reading train station. As the fifth busiest train station in the UK, the area receives 4.8 million fortnightly impacts, and is a prime position to promote Newbury this Christmas.
Additionally, following the success of our Re-Visit Newbury summer-autumn campaign encouraging people safely back into town post-pandemic, the use of bus advertising is part of the strategy once again to help spread awareness of the Christmas message. The campaign recently launched on the supersides of three Newbury & District buses – part of the Reading Buses family- which travel multiple routes across West Berkshire, so keep your eyes peeled for these!
Furthermore, part of the fund for the marketing project has been spent on the TV advert production and other outsource partners, using local businesses wherever possible, to conceptualise the ‘12 Days of Newbury’ Christmas brand and create the design materials.
Kirsty Lemberger, our Marketing Manager, said:
We are delighted to receive funds for this strand of the project, as this will really help us put Newbury on the map as a Christmas destination. The aim is to grow the town’s reputation and Christmas events so visitors return year on year.
Drawing in this level of footfall in December will be hugely beneficial to Newbury’s retail, hospitality, and leisure businesses, including hotels. The campaign will also promote the activities delivered at Christmas by key local organisations such as the Corn Exchange, Newbury Racecourse and Parkway, and we are working in partnership with their teams on this project.
It has also been a pleasure to work in partnership with local creative and digital marketing agency, Fusion Group, whose team devised and brought to life the ‘12 days of Newbury’ concept.
To find out more about what’s happening in Newbury this Christmas, please click here.
