As Ivanhoé Cambridge and Outlet Collection Winnipeg inched closer to the spring 2017 grand opening of Manitoba’s first outlet mall, McKim was engaged to develop a strategy and integrated paid tactics, and to execute public and media relations support and handle all social media influencer engagement. In 2015, the agency had provided much the same support for the groundbreaking event.
Our aim was to generate awareness through ongoing media and social media coverage through strategically-timed key announcements, promotions, exclusive opportunities, and stakeholder and community engagement initiatives.
Four distinct phases were identified to get us to grand opening. First, we needed to officially announce the grand opening, and the upcoming job fair dates. The second phase was media coverage of the job fair weekend. Third, we coordinated two invite-only “hardhat” sneak peek tours — one for media and the other, for fashion-friendly social media influencers. Lastly, we had the exclusive grand opening event to help organize, where we did everything from developing speaking notes and the event script; to coordinating all regional and national live media hits and stakeholder interviews; to managing the event’s VIP list of 500+ guests.
McKim provided Ivanhoé Cambridge’s communications team in Montreal with context and insight into the community, and managed all news media outreach and requests within the mall’s large inter-provincial and northern-U.S. catchment area. We ensured we identified all opportunities to earn maximum buzz and momentum for each phase. The agency also engaged and scheduled CTV Morning Live Winnipeg to do live remote hits at the mall with stakeholders grand opening morning, and helped coordinate a live hit with BNN.
Collectively, more than 50 earned media stories were achieved with a total reach of at least 13.3 million. Many stories were front page or the leading online story.
