The Challenge

Established 30 years ago, The Grafton is a 420,000 sq ft covered shopping centre that has lost its way in terms of its competitive position in Cambridge since the relocation of John Lewis and the opening of Grand Arcade. The challenge was to find a way in which we could engage both the community and the decision-maker in the family whilst maximising the associated crowdsourcing opportunity.

The Solution

The Toolbox Team capitalised on entrepreneurialism among women, social media crowdsourcing, and artisanal trends, matching these to the target market and the marketing objectives of the centre to create Mumpreneur Market. We successfully adapted global trends to the marketing requirements of a local community shopping centre, proving that creative marketing is about big ideas – not big budgets.

• Overall footfall increase of +27.5% week on week and +10.5% year on year
• Year on year sales increased of +8.39%
• Participants in the event sold 100% over target
• £8,829.75 worth of PR was generated, equating to 78.43% of the total investment
• Over 250 uploads were made during the 6 weeks prior to the event, receiving 1,272 comments, shares and likes and reaching more than 30,000 followers
• Facebook page saw a +66.7% increase in engagement, +149.6% increase in likes and +119.1% increase in reach during November
• The voting application on the Facebook page registered 2,898 visits and received 434 votes