No surprise Bury's a hit

With £500m of private investment being ploughed into Bury, the town’s council needed a consumer campaign promoting Bury as a fantastic place to visit, shop, work, and relocate to. Not only would the new Rock shopping and leisure development be a huge attraction, but existing facilities deserved equal prominence so that Bury as a whole could be put forward as a complete package in every way.

A&P put forward a proposal for a campaign challenging the public’s preconceptions about the town while reinforcing its name to heighten awareness. ‘Bury Surprising’ was the result. Integrating the ‘better placed’ supporting line into the Bury logo, A&P broke the strategy down into audience segments targeted through a variety of specific media activities throughout the region. Within this, a series of headlines substituted the word ‘very’ with ‘Bury’; so the campaign could highlight in a simple and memorable way the town’s heritage and beauty, along with its contemporary features. There was also a strong website call to action, offering online vouchers to be spent in Bury in order to increase consumer footfall.

The success of this approach has meant that even though the campaign is officially over, the site still has over 200 visits a day.