Christmas 2010

Evaluation

Introduction• The following slides provide a summary of the

evaluation of “Manchester Magical Christmas” by MHM commissioned by CityCo

• In addition, the subsequent results achieved by “Manchester Magical Christmas” campaign is detailed including information on the:

- Christmas Lights Switch-On- Spinningfields Ice Rink (and Lodge)- Christmas Markets- Piccadilly Gardens- New Years Eve Fireworks

Background• For Christmas 2010, MCC along with CityCo, Marketing Manchester,

Manchester Arndale, Manchester Markets, Piccadilly Partnership, GMPTE and other major transport providers and city centre retailers, used a partnership approach to co-ordinate and promote a programme of Christmas events alongside retail and travel, in the interests of attracting more people into the city centre on the run up to Christmas.

• In 2010 there were five anchor events comprising the city centre’s Christmas celebrations. These events were:

- The switching on of the Christmas lights- Spinningfields ice rink- Manchester Arndale Grotto- A family friendly fair in Piccadilly Gardens- Christmas markets throughout the city centre

• The events was supported by a major promoting Christmas in the city centre with campaign including a widely distributed promotional flyer, coordinated outdoor, radio campaigns, and online activity through Visit Manchester.

Background• The key objectives of the Christmas campaign

were to:- deliver an attractive programme of quality events in the

run up to Christmas- attract visitors into Manchester city centre from a 60

min travel time- attract visits from the higher spending (ABC1) socio-

economic groups into Manchester city centre- attract visits from families into the Piccadilly Gardens

area of the city centre- move people around the city and encourage them to

take up the retail, culture, leisure and hospitality offer within the city centre

- deliver increased visitor numbers and economic impact in Manchester city centre in the run up to Christmas

Research Summary

MethodologyPrimary research:

352 surveys conducted in Piccadilly Gardens, with a further 612 being carried out across the following 5 locations:

• Spinningfields Ice Rink:• King Street• Exchange Square• Albert Square• Market Street

The survey gauged levels of awareness and attendance at the Christmas events, as well as responses to the marketing campaign and some basic economic impact data.

Secondary research:

Various data sources including footfall counters, retail transactions and press evaluation figures.

Awareness of Campaign

• 57% of visitors in Piccadilly Gardens and 47% of people elsewhere in the city centre said they had seen the ‘Manchester’s Magical Christmas’ Campaign compared to 18% of people in 2009 who were aware of the ‘See What Manchester’s Made Of’ campaign.

• Awareness of images was highest at King Street and Albert Square, and lowest on Market Street

Awareness of Campaign (by Channel)

• Posters, particularly on public transport, were very important in raising awareness of the Christmas events, with word of mouth also crucial

• Visitors who used the leaflet and the Visit Manchester website found these effective in planning their visits.

• Awareness of the radio adverts increased year on year, from 7% in 2009 to 12% in 2010 among Piccadilly Gardens visitors and up to 19% among visitors to Spinningfields Ice Rink and King Street.

• The number of unique hits on the Visit Manchester website’s Christmas landing pages increased from 48,442 in 2008 to 112,854 in 2009 to 191,215 in 2010 – a rise of 67% y-o-y

Awareness of Events• There was an extremely

high awareness of the Manchester’s Christmas events among people throughout the city, with the Christmas Markets achieving 94% awareness of people in Piccadilly Gardens and 95% elsewhere in the city centre.

Usage of Events• The Markets were the

most popular event to attend with 80% of those surveyed intending to visit

• On average, visitors in Piccadilly Gardens expected to come into the city centre 3.49 times to go to a Christmas event in the run up to Christmas.

• Visitors elsewhere in the city centre expected to come into Manchester 2.99 times specifically for a Christmas event.

Attendance of Events

* Approximately 1.3m visitors in 2009

*

Visitor Demographics: Composition• 24% of visitors in Piccadilly

Gardens and 41% of visitor across the rest of the city centre were visiting in a family group.

• Family groups were especially prevalent at Spinningfields (60%) and Market Street (41%).

• Highest proportion of couples could be found at Spinningfields (33%) and Albert Square (31%).

Visitor Demographics: Age• Just under 1 in 5 visitors to the city centre locations were aged under16 compared to 8% in Piccadilly Gardens.

Visitor Demographics: Location

• Majority of visitors came from the North West. Approximately 10% came from elsewhere in the UK and 2% came from overseas.• Around 23% came from within MCC, compared to 29% in 2009 meaning that in 2010 a higher proportion of people came from outside of MCC

Visitor Demographics: Reason for Visit• Christmas shopping was the most

common main reason for visiting the city centre for approximately a third of people

• 31% of people at in the 5 city centre locations said that a Christmas event was their main reason for the visit, compared to just 13% in Piccadilly Gardens.

• People in Piccadilly Gardens were more likely to be living or working in the city centre as their main reason for the visit.

• People on Market Street were more likely to be Christmas shopping (65%) than at Spinningfields Ice Rink (15%).

• In turn, people at Spinningfields Ice Rink were more likely to be there specifically for a Christmas event (54% main reason) than at any of the other locations.

Visitor Satisfaction

• Visitors to events gave very high satisfaction scores with people in Albert Square giving the highest satisfaction rating, with 96% rating the Christmas event they had been to that day as good or excellent

• The lowest satisfaction ratings were on Market Street, which also had the highest proportion of visitors not going to a Christmas event that day.

• Even on Market Street, 86% of visitors rated their Christmas event that day as good or excellent

Economic Impact• Average visitor spend for Piccadilly Gardens was

£49.22 generating £1.58m for Economic Impact for Manchester

• Spend data was not collected for the other events but assumptions can be made given the visitor number:

- Piccadilly Gardens: £1.58m- Manchester Markets: £49.3m (2009 figure)- Spinningfields Ice Rink: £2.06m (est.)- Arndale Santas Grotto: £0.26m (est.)- Christmas Lights Switch-on: £0.58m (est.)- TOTAL £52.78m (est.)

Other Findings• 28% of vistors came by train compared to just

17% in 2009 with car use declining• PR value of media coverage of the campaign in

2010 was £218k• Over 30% of visitors expected to spend more

than 5 hours in the city compared to just 18% in 2009

• Increase in retail turnover up 6.72% in Nov and 5.2% in Dec compared to 2009 against a decrease nationally

• Footfall also increased year-on-year

RESULTS:Christmas Lights Switch-On

Christmas Lights Switch-on

12 November

Audience: 12,000

Christmas Lights Switch-onWeb Analytics – Christmas Press Release on manchester.gov.uk

RESULTS:Spinningfields Ice Rink (and Lodge)

Spinningfields Ice Rink11 November 2010 – 3 January 2011

• 42,500 skaters

• 2.4% increase on 2009.

Spinningfields Ice RinkTicket Breakdown

Adults: 34.4%

Youth: 9.5%

Children: 15.2%

Family: 16.5%

Senior: 0.23%

Spinningfields Ice RinkTicket Breakdown

Students: 12.75%

Schools: 4.22%

Groups: 5.26%

Foster Care Offer: 172 family tickets

Skate Lessons: 17

Spinningfields Ice RinkTicket Breakdown by Postcode

42%

18%

9%

6%

5%

2%

2%

1%

1%

1%

1%

1%

1%

10%

M

SK

OL

WA

BL

WN

BB

PR

CW

L

LA

FY

S

Other

Spinningfields Ice RinkWeb Analytics – spinningfieldsicerink.com

• Visits: 50,520

• Unique Users: 42,117

• Page Views: 157,632

• Average Page Views: 3.14

Spinningfields Ice RinkWeb Analytics – spinningfieldsicerink.com

• Average Time on Site: 2 mins 5 secs.

• Bounce Rate: 37%

• New Visits: 76.8%

Spinningfields Ice RinkWeb Analytics – Spinningfields Ice Rink page on Man.gov.uk

68% of visits came from the Spinningfields Ice Rink homepage advert.

Spinningfields Ice Rink

Web Analytics from Quaytickets.com• 2,639 visits to Spinningfields Ice Rink

section of quaytickets.com

• 2,358 visits referred from Spinningfieldsicerink.com

• Other referral sites include Facebook, visitmanchester.com, manchestertheatres.com

Spinningfields Ice RinkAnalysis of Traffic to Quaytickets Ticket Booking Lines

Spinningfieldsicerink.com: 89.5% of calls

Leaflet: 3.8% of calls

Press: 1.2% of calls

Outdoor: 1.1% of calls

Foster Care Offer: 76 calls (2.2%)

The Lodge - Spinningfields Ice RinkVery difficult to measure footfall as entry was free.

• Estimated 56% of visitors to the Ice Rink visited The Lodge

• 89% of visitors rated The Lodge as excellent or good

• New Year’s Eve: 400 people.

Spinningfields Ice RinkCustomer Feedback

61% of visitors have visited the rink before

91% of visitors rated the experience as excellent or good

Sample: 162.

Spinningfields Ice RinkHow visitors found out about the rink

7%1%

14%

23%

1%9%

8%

25%

2%

0% 10%

Newspaper / Magazine / Advert

Radio

Internet

E-Newsletter

Event-Text

Social Media

Outdoor Media

Word Of Mouth

Leaflet

TIC

Other

Spinningfields Ice Rink

Other attractions visited15%

8%

52%

5%

1%

4%

15%

Spinningfields Restaurants

Shops

Christmas Markets

Gallery / Museum

Theatre / Show

Other

Bar / Pub

Spinningfields Ice Rink“I was very impressed with the staff, keeping everyone under control and helping those who fell up promptly. All very organised and yet it was a busy session.”

“I think the Ice Rick is a Brilliant Idea! Feels like you’re almost in New York!”

“Excellent service, very welcoming and my children loved it.”

“Great ice rink and really loved the Lodge was so cosy!”

“It has a wonderful Christmassy atmosphere.”

Spinningfields Ice Rink“It was very good, excellent value.”

“We had a hilarious time at the rink, and coupled with the Christmas markets, it made for an excellent evening out with friends on two occasions. I wasn’t quite doing the Bolero, but after a couple of mulled wines, I’d managed to get from one end of the rink to the other without my face hitting the ice! Hopefully, the rink will be back this year!”

RESULTS:Christmas Markets

Christmas Markets

18 November – 21 December

• No official measurement for 2010.

• 2009: 1.3m visitors

• 2009 Economic Impact: £49.9m

Christmas MarketsIn 2010, King Street hosted a new Christmas Market

King Street Footfall Figures (CityCo):

November 2010: footfall: 672,808

November 2009: footfall: 325,710

(106.57% year on year increase in footfall)

December 2010: footfall: 886,659

December 2009: footfall: 420,428

(110.89% year on year increase in footfall)

Christmas MarketsWeb Analytics – Christmas Markets Opening Times on manchester.gov.uk

RESULTS:New Years Eve Fireworks

New Year’s Eve Fireworks

31 December, Spinningfields

• Audience: 5,000

• Two additional ice rink skate sessions were full.

• The Lodge: 400 people.