Plovdiv – The City of Seven Hills shopping in a New Direction

At our creative agency, we strongly believe that the identity of any brand should not only be unique but also memorable. One such example is our collaboration with VIA to create VIA North, the new retail park in the Via family. Perhaps after reading our blog ‘VIA’ is familiar to you? Yes, VIA Park – the first retail park from the VIA family in the city below the hills and VIA Offices – the office building that is not only part of the extended VIA family but is also part of the VIA Park retail park.

After the successfully positioned VIA Park and VIA Offices, it was time for the new challenge and the new location – the second retail park in the city, namely VIA North. As for the other brands under the VIA umbrella, here we also started from the identity, but it was important that it was both linked to the already established identity and that it recreated the brand idea of expansion. Let us tell you how we achieved that.

Task

The VIA North project was not only a new venture, but a natural extension of the successful VIA Park. Our task was to retain the strong identity of the first VIA Park and adapt it for the new key location – Karlovsko Shose, the fifth busiest thoroughfare in the country.

Insight

Our main goal was to create a brand that was not only logically connected to the VIA brand family, but also offered something new and exciting for consumers. VIA North wasn’t just a new retail park – it built on our first project, VIA Park, with scale and diversity in the retail mix.

Creative

Work on the creative part of the project began with identifying the key elements that define VIA as a brand. It was very important to keep the balance between creating a new brand, but keeping all the homogeneity that is associated with the VIA family.

Slogan and logo

When working on the logo and slogan for VIA North , it was important to create something that complemented VIA Park but also reflected the specifics of the new location. In order not to lose the strong brand identity, we decided to keep the logo with the only change being the addition of the location – ‘North’ in the name. This not only maintained the visual identity of the brand, but also created a sense of new beginnings while reinforcing the connection between the two retail parks. The tagline remained the same – ‘Buy Everything’ to emphasize that VIA North is an extension of the philosophy that VIA Park has successfully built.

Identity

We built VIA North‘s visual identity on the strong foundations laid by VIA Park. It was imperative to maintain a unified style that was recognizable and gave the project a sense of scale. It was important that the design work, colour palette and visual elements maintained a unified line between the two retail parks, while keeping in mind the uniqueness of the new location. We added a larger color palette in the style of VIA North to create the feel of a larger retail park with more outlets.

Social media and advertising campaigns

We launched an aggressive social media communication for VIA North through creative content and reached a huge number of users.

Website

As for the other brands in the VIA family – VIA Park and VIA Offices, we also had the task of creating a branded website that was easy to navigate and where users could find the information they needed. Take a look at the website here.

Key visions

In order to familiarize all consumers in the city under the hills with the advantages of VIA North and to create a strong emotional connection, we are preparing a large offline and online campaign. For the campaign after the opening of the retail park, we developed a series of key visions to provoke and give a reason for the city’s residents to recognize the new location as well as to visit it. We added branding to the barriers inside and out, as well as hanging pins to prompt visitors to follow the retail park’s social media channels. We also developed an out-of-the-box campaign with promoters to place ‘frames’ on the mirrors of cars parked near the site and in other residential neighborhoods we targeted.

VIA North is an important step in the development of the VIA family, and we were partners in this important moment and managed to realize the set goals and position the new retail park in the city under the hills.

Stay tuned to our blog for many more exciting campaigns in the retail park and shopping centre sector.