Sakura London is the lead agency for placemaking this Central London location into a dining and lifestyle destination for Londoners, residents, workers, students and discerning tourists. Closed for five years, this centenarian, early 20th-century pedestrianised haven needed to attract the right retailers whilst under construction. We were tasked to assist retail agent conversations, whilst simultaneously building the Sicilian Avenue brand.
We advised on a B2B2C strategy with content that could be readily used on consumer channels as soon as the site opened, sourcing and managing partners to develop the brand strategy and website. AI search and SEO is vital for incoming retailers and its consumers, so we centralised the PR function and focused on the Wikipedia page, the website content and news and articles. These were supported by earned media opportunities via a creative research campaign to tell the story about shifting consumer behaviour towards pedestrianisation and the future of retail, as well as preferences to work in spaces such as restaurants and cafés (which are essentially the new third spaces). We created content for LinkedIn to empower retail agent conversations and thought leadership articles and comment in regional, trade and retail publications.
Within 10 months, we garnered over 100 pieces of quality, dedicated coverage across national, regional, trade and consumer media with an average domain authority of 53, and over half a million coverage views.
With retailers now arriving, we continue to support Sicilian Avenue as a destination. We recently launched the Instagram page @SicilianAvenueLDN with content and copy developed over the past year. Within two weeks, we had over 220 followers from just three posts.
