This year, Atkinsons celebrated its 150th year anniversary with a bang through a nostalgic marketing campaign led by Open House Pictures.
Atkinsons began in 1872 as a small haberdashery on The Moor in Sheffield city centre and has since grown into a department store and restaurant. The store is now home to fashion, furniture, appliances, beauty, footwear and more. A collaboratively led direction to focus on the store’s history, staff and legacy delivered a boom in engagement for Atkinsons on the firm’s landmark year.
The Open House team launched a series of videos that were designed to appeal to the Atkinsons audience over the span of several weeks. They focused on delivering key messages in a quick catchy way to retain ongoing attention. As each new video was released, it continued to promote the brand and style of the last. This meant that viewers were able to connect with Atkinsons and see the videos as a larger campaign message.
David Cartwright, Atkinsons marketing manager, said: “Open House Pictures did a fantastic job of raising awareness for both the store’s history and this special event, helping us to reach customers new and old through their videos. These videos have received great engagement across several social media channels.”
When developing initial concepts, Open House has a strict pre-production process that takes them through not just their clients’ business but their history, industry and place in the market. All this preparation work allows for perfectly delivered video content that drives traffic and engagement.
Although it’s clear Open House pride themselves on great quality content, they aren’t happy unless the video makes the difference for their clients.
Dan Bale, co-founder at Open House Pictures said: “Atkinsons is such a historical monument in Sheffield, so when the chance finally came to work with them directly, we took it in a heartbeat. Being the last department store in Sheffield and having persevered and beaten the odds to stay open for over 150 years is a true testament to the city.
“We really wanted to tap into what makes Atkinsons what it is. There’s a big emphasis on giving back to local shops at the moment and we definitely felt that pull towards Atkinsons.
“We worked with marketing manager, David Cartwright, to really define what the public’s perception is of the store. We spent a great deal of time looking through the old photographs and memorabilia and then it struck us. Utilising the history and nostalgia of the place, we could redirect past customers back into the store.
“As a video production company our focus is finding out what makes a business or service special and unique. How can we draw from different areas and bring something engaging and exciting to the forefront?
“We’ve always been a business that loves connecting and working with other businesses. We love to work out what makes them tick, how they work in their industry and what they’re pioneering at. Every business is at the forefront with something, whether they know it or not.”
