Merthyr Tydfil Town Centre has received national recognition winning of two national awards, the BCSC Town Centre Environment Award and the RTPI Regeneration Network Award, for the regeneration of the town centre. Retailers felt that a marketing campaign needed to be undertaken to promote the new look of the town centre across the region.
Merthyr Tydfil County Borough Council approached the Heads of The Valleys Programme for funding to undertake an extensive marketing and events programme for the Christmas shopping period. The application was successful and a partnership of St Tydfil’s Shopping Centre, The Chamber of Trade and Merthyr Tydfil County Borough Council (CBC) was formed to design a brand for the campaign.
The design team at Merthyr Tydfil CBC looked at what the town centre had to offer and how to communicate this to a wider audience. The brand of:
Step into Shopping
Stop for a Cuppa
Stay for the evening
This idea along, with the images taken in the town was approved by the group and the Town Centre Partnership. The next step was to look at how to put these images and messages across the Heads of the Valley effectively. It was decided that a billboard campaign would be a new approach to marketing the town.
Results from a shopping survey across the area were looked at to see which neighbouring towns and villages had low visitor numbers to the town centre. Following this, billboards were booked for Merthyr Tydfil, Aberdare, Mountain Ash and Cardiff Queen Street Railway Station. In addition bus adverts that covered Brecon, Neath, Rhondda and the Rhymney Valleys routes were also booked along with newspaper adverts for the region.