Come for the shopping, stay because you can.

Challenge

Shopping with children is an event. They have no interest in shopping. They want snacks, drinks and entertaining. This means parents attention is stretched and their nerves stressed ultimately turning them into multi-tasking shopping ninjas – in and out. The Marlowes wanted to launch an indoor play area to make life easier for parents and increase dwell time. A sanctuary where parents could let their little angels burn off some energy completely free-of-charge. 

Turning instinct into action

Marlowes already had a Kids’ Club – complete with mascot, Marley the badger. There was already an expectation from parents visiting the centre of what that was all about. And we know from behavioural science that our brains love sorting information and creating biases that run our day-to-day decision making. Leveraging the pre-conceptions of the Kids Club would instantly give parents something to connect the new offering too. So rather than through the badger out with the bath water – Marley’s Stay & Play was born.

Big Cat brought the play area to life through a visual identity inhabited with illustrated woodland characters – tying into the Kids’ Club theme.

Launch activity was then created and rolled out during May Half Term 2019. This included OOH adverts that ran around Hemel Hempstead town centre, as well as radio and press ads. In-centre there was a ballooned archway, face painters, branded goodies, cupcakes and an interactive trail around the mall.