Marketing Omega as a desirable destination
Omega is an exciting strategic regeneration project located at Junction 8 of the M62 and sprawling 575 acres. The site is owned by Omega Warrington Ltd (a joint venture partnership between Miller Developments, a subsidiary of the Royal Bank of Scotland plc and Homes & Communities Agency). To be phased over 25-30 years, the prestigious £1.25 billion development opportunity is recognised as one of the largest and most important strategic projects in Europe.
As experts in destination marketing, Core was appointed to carry out a range of activity to promote Warrington as a world class destination for investment. From the outset Core produced a comprehensive brand from an existing logo allowing the two sites (North and South) to have their own identity.
Various marketing activities were undertaken to promote the scheme including brochures, signage, events and sponsorship, which were all designed to drive traffic to a dual purpose website.
the website had to create a vision of the scheme that was aspirational
The website that Core created had to fulfil a number of specific objectives. Firstly, as there was no physical development in progress and therefore nothing to photograph, the website had to create a vision of the scheme that was aspirational and that potential prospects could understand and identify with. This was created through the use of strong stock images and CGIs.
In this instance, the design of the website and the brand experience created was of much more importance that the SEO or accessibility of the site, given that the target audience would be led to the site rather that stumbling across it. To create the impact of the scheme online, the design incorporated a substantial amount of flash animation and sound, as well as design led navigation tools, such as utilising the Omega logo in the menu dial.
The scheme is clearly divided into two offers, industrial and commercial. It was therefore important to clearly mirror this through the framework of the website to reinforce that the scheme is holistic but also outlined the different opportunities available, as per the printed materials produced. The homepage has therefore been physically split into two halves, using the two different logos as click throughs into the divided sections.
As the website was targeted at potential occupiers for the scheme, it was important that the audience were given a bespoke brand experience that would reinforce the offer at Omega. A passworded extranet was created and individual passwords were given to prospects who could then access bespoke information and plans held within the extranet pages to encourage downloads and repeat visits, as well as creating a sense involvement for the visitor. This element of the website has been temporarily removed as the developer is not actively marketing elements of the site at this time.