We have reached September, and the summer of 2022 is coming to a close. As we wave goodbye to sunny days, light nights and beer gardens and welcome frosty mornings and pumpkin spice lattes, we thought it would be a good time to reflect on a summer that will be hard to forget!
Being the first totally ‘normal’ summer since the start of the pandemic, it was welcomed with open arms. There was so much to look forward to, so many things to celebrate and lots of events to attend. At OPEN some events we were particularly excited to see activation for were; the LFC Parade around the streets of Liverpool, the Women’s Euros Final and of course the many artists at Wembley Stadium including Harry Styles and Ed Sheeran.
It was great to see our city centres and retail areas booming again, with shoppers getting out and about. Although over the summer footfall has been behind 2019 levels, it has seen uplifts with events such as the Queens Jubilee and the Women’s Euros final. Particularly in July, retail sales in shops were boosted by summer spending on staycations down to the heatwaves and the BRC has reported that the UK is leading the way in high street recovery, when compared to other counterparts around Europe. The news of retail making a return has been a fantastic boost for brands and truly has been evident on our retail sites with the sheer plethora of brand campaigns over the summer.
The Out of Home industry has witnessed an incredible rebound this year and this has been demonstrated by some amazing campaigns. Earlier this year it was forecast by AA/WARC that OOH could expect to see an impressive growth of over 31% during Q2 and the summer months. This coupled with findings from Talon which stated that a large number of survey respondents were planning to spend time locally and out of home during this summer, gave brands an ample opportunity to display their summer campaigns via the medium of OOH.
We have carried some fantastically memorable campaigns over the summer, from all kinds of brands, and as we approach autumn and winter, we are so excited to see what’s next! As we are looking back at the summer though, it is only right we shine a spotlight on some of our favourite campaigns we have carried…
Nike – Liverpool FC is never done.
Fresh off the back of winning two trophies, LFC held a victory parade around the streets of Liverpool to celebrate. Drawing thousands upon thousands of spectators, Nike used several buildings leading up to the culmination of the parade to display their ‘Liverpool FC is Never Done’ campaign. Simple yet effective, the campaign was shared worldwide via social media and truly made an impact.
Netflix – Man vs Bee
This summer Rowan Atkinson was back with his new Netflix series, Man vs Bee. Using our Trafford sites, and for our first special build, they commissioned a swarm of enormous bees to really bring the campaign to life. The result was fantastic, creating a memorable campaign for consumers and driving lots of engagement from social media and the press!
OPEN & Proud
This year we proudly displayed our new OPEN & Proud campaign across the entirety of our large format portfolio. Celebrating and lifting up the LGBTQ+ community during a time when physical Pride events were unsure of their future, the campaign made a lasting impression and was our most successful Pride campaign yet!
