It has spent a year repositioning itself - now this Australian icon has been recognised on the world stage.
Strand Arcade has taken out a top gong at the ICSC Annual Asia Pacific Shopping Centre Awards Program.
Strand Arcade was honoured with a gold award for its “We Are The Makers” campaign.
Over a 12 month period, Strand Arcade moved the centre away from its existing positioning towards celebrating bespoke retailing across categories broader than just fashion to include food, jewellery, gifting and services.
The campaign leveraged off a trend towards provenance.
Marketers highlighted the backstory to brands, illustrated the artisan process and showcased the high quality of products beyond simply cost at face value.
The series was successful in changing consumer attitudes and behaviors towards the Centre.
Customers began to explore cross shop opportunities across retail categories broader than just fashion.
The Centre Leasing team also noted an increase in enquires to lease future space by brands which identified with the new positioning principles of craftsmanship and authenticity.
As at 30 June 2014 Strand Arcade is at 100% occupancy, with an MAT sales increase of +11.3% MAT, ranked first for Specialty MAT/m2 in the 2014 CBD Guns Shopping Centre News rankings.
Professional recognition for the campaign was given to Alex Foutris, Marketing Manager, Ipoh Pty Ltd.
ICSC announced the winners of the 2014 ICSC Asia Pacific Shopping Center Awards during a ceremony at ICSC’s RECon Asia Convention Singapore.
In addition, all 2014 gold winners are automatically eligible to win ICSC's VIVA Best-of-the- Best Award.
The latter will be staged in Las Vegas in May, 2015.