Background

George Wimpey Special Projects’ site, on the south bank of the Tyne in Dunston, Gateshead, did not have the advantage of a ‘good’ address.

The area had a challenging socio-economic complexion and as such, although the land that made up the site was cheap and available, it was not an easy location for the client to market.

The client was also embarking on a strategy to change its positioning, having delivered a series of landmark regeneration projects such as The Ropeworks in Manchester, WaterQuarter in Cardiff and the Wills Building in Newcastle upon Tyne, all of which Cool Blue worked on to develop branding and public relations support.

Strategy

Our aim was to turn what was considered an undesirable address into one of the most sought after in the city. We not only wanted to create clamour for the product but also to help re-position the company as being interested in something we termed ‘design democracy’.

We decided to contact design pundit Wayne Hemingway who had been decrying the ‘Wimpeyfication of Britain’ in various national newspaper articles and asked him to stop complaining and start helping, by working with the client at the Dunston site.

An amazing design collaboration resulted, with the client taking an open-minded view of our ideas surrounding the collaboration and the possibilities within the resulting PR and marketing campaign.

The Hemingways’ notions, of how to do things differently and better, resulted in uniquely designed, value for money properties, affordable to all.

Result

Our media relations campaign created a bush fire of intense excitement and interest with over £5.6million of positive national coverage delivered over an eighteen month period. The Sunday Times gave it two front pages of its Home supplement, supported by six page features within, and the story appeared constantly in the UK’s leading media including the BBC, The Independent, The Telegraph, the Financial Times and The Guardian amongst many others. It also appeared heavily in many trade titles such as Estates Gazette, Regeneration and Renewal and Property Week.

On the launch of the first phase of properties for sale, people camped overnight to ensure their place in the queue with national BBC radio and TV coverage of the phenomenon. All properties were sold within four hours of the sales office opening.