#DestinationRedhill 2023
#DestinationRedhill
#DestinationRedhill is the flagship event of the Redhill Business Guild. This town centre activation event was created in 2023 to drive footfall into the town centre to support local businesses and raise awareness of the local offerings in the town. Town centre activation can be a difficult challenge, especially when a town has had no real evening or night-time economy in recent memory. However, with the hard work of the Guild, we have now created and run two #DestinationRedhill events with incredible success each time.
Summer 2023
The first #DestinationRedhill Event was held in June to support the launch of The Light opening in the new Marketfield Way development ‘The Rise’. This was the perfect opportunity to take advantage of the additional footfall coming into the town centre to showcase the rest of the town’s businesses. To maximise this opportunity, the campaign was created quickly and the Guild pulled together to create a town centre activation event that pulled together major stakeholders in the town alongside 49 Redhill businesses. This all culminated in an impressive increase in footfall in the town centre. Overall footfall was up 14% compared to the same week last year and up 12.5% on the week prior. Weekend footfall in the town was especially high with Fri/Sat/Sun up 17% on the previous week with all three days being the busiest respective days of the year-to-date. Dwell time in Redhill also rose to 3hrs 45 minutes reflecting increased presence in the town and cinema/leisure usage. Read the case study here.
Christmas 2023
Following the success of the summer #DestinationRedhill event, a Christmas version was planned to support local businesses in this especially busy and significantly important time of year. Through the Redhill Business Guild and supported by Reigate and Banstead Council, The Chain Agency was hired for the second time to run the #DestinationRedhill event and marketing campaign. The campaign covered a whole month culminating in the physical event on the 9th of December. Local participation for this event increased to even higher levels with 96 Redhill businesses, performers and groups engaging with the event to make it a huge success. This event also saw a dramatic increase in footfall with the Belfry Shopping Centre reporting increased footfall by 27.1% at a time when the national average dipped by 3.9%. The week overall saw 100,000 visitors to the Belfry resulting in the highest visitor numbers for five years (Since Christmas 2018).
In 2024 we are planning to hold a summer event on Saturday 13 July, activating not only the town centre but Memorial Park as well. On Saturday 7 December, we are planning another event to celebrate the festive period and ensure that all town remains busy during the run-up to Christmas. We also have a lot of work to do to maintain the Christmas tree in the centre of town for this year as the structure and lighting needs some serious remedial work.
These are great opportunities for us to promote town centre businesses, but we will need funding to make these plans a reality. If you would be interested in sponsoring the Guild’s efforts this year, please get in contact with the Guild at redhillbusinessguild@gmail.com
