Karlovo – the town that had everything except a modern SHOPPING point

The town with Renaissance spirit and picturesque views

When we talk about the town of Karlovo, our first association is not the rich history and Bulgarian spirit we associate with the town. The town Karlovo is a picturesque and soul-filling town located at the foot of the beautiful Balkan Mountains. Famous for being the hometown of the Apostle of Bulgarian freedom – Vasil Levski, the town of Karlovo attracts a huge number of tourists all year round. Another reason why the town is among the most popular destinations for tourists is the Balkan Mountains, which during the warm seasons is a favorite place for trekking among mountaineers and lovers of mountain trails because of its many scenic eco-trails. Close to the town Sopot – the birthplace of the patriarch of Bulgarian literature – Ivan Vazov. And speaking of the delicacies we can indulge in while on an adventure, the town is also famous for its authentic cuisine. But let’s move on to the meat of the article, lest our tears flow.

At first glance, the town Karlovo has it all – a rich history, carrying the spirit of the Renaissance to this day; streets along which walked some of the greatest scribes and freedom fighters; cultural and natural landmarks; fresh air and breathtaking views of the majestic Balkan Mountains; the beginning of numerous eco-trails and an unceasing tide of tourists from all over Bulgaria and abroad. Looking at it this way, you wonder ‘What could the city be missing?’. Well, it was actually missing one single thing to fill its entire image. And that thing was SHOPPING. And this is where we start to slowly get into the meat of our article. But before that…let’s share some information about the investor and his brand idea. There’s still a little bit left, have patience.

Premier X – an investor with a deep brand idea

Speaking of the investor, we can’t fail to mention that the retail park is the work of a 100% Bulgarian company. And how did it take care of the residents of Karlovo and the development of the city? Very easily, by solving two main problems. On the one hand, Karlovo Way Park will save the inconvenience of Karlovo residents and residents of nearby settlements to travel to the big city to shop from their favourite brands, as until now they were not positioned on the Karlovo market. We are living in a period of economic crisis, which has made travelling a more expensive pleasure. By building a retail park in the city, the investor will save residents time and money. On the other hand, the retail park also has a positive impact on unemployment. Thanks to it, more than 120 new jobs will be created in Karlovo.

Two main problems and only one solution – Karlovo Way Park.

And so, with its investment of more than 12.5 million BGN, Karlovo Way Park has become the first retail park in the city and the surrounding area, the only one in the region on 2 levels, gathered in 11 stores, including favorite Bulgarian and world-famous brands such as Billa, PEPCO, Sinsay, Lilly Drogerie, Technomarket and others, which will soon open their doors, 146 parking spaces and a majestic view. Karlovo Way Park will become the new SHOPPING POINT of the city, and Karlovo was already lacking nothing.

And so we’re officially getting into the meat of our article, the mission of our freaks and how we contributed as a creative agency.

The freaks who followed the brand idea, developing it into a creative result

When the client contacted us, their desire was one thing – to have us be their loyal partners on the path to overall brand development. He came to us with a profound and consumer problem-solving brand idea, and our mission was to create its vision – building a complete brand identity from scratch. With high motivation and energy, full of creative passion, we started working on the project.

NAME

The first and most important task of any project from scratch is to create the brand name. As a creative agency, our mission was to come up with not just another cliché name – ‘retail park’ – but a memorable name that enveloped the brand idea. The retail park is located in a key and communicative place – the sub-Balkan road Sofia – Burgas, at the entrance to the town of Karlovo, from the direction – town of Karlovo. The hotel is located on the road from Karlovo to Sopot. It is because of this convenient transport junction, which is key for the residents of Karlovo and all passing tourists, we decided to name the park – Karlovo Way Park.

After the client fell in love with the brand name, it was our turn to create the next task, which was to…

LOGO AND SLOGAN

And since a successfully completed brand is one in which the message of the brand idea is perfectly implemented not only in the name, but also in the logo and slogan, we as a creative agency have achieved exactly that.

In the logo, we depicted the roundabout next to which the retail park is positioned. Inspired by the brand’s name and one of its main USPs – location, we combined typography and custom lettering of the letter ‘A’ to represent the location and accessibility of the retail park.

And in the slogan, we directly communicated this key advantage through the message – ‘We’re coming to you’, which completely finished the representation of the overall brand idea.

And here, the time has come to share with you how it all looked like at the end

After we created the name, the logo and the slogan, it was time for the next task, which was…

ALIGNMENT OF THE BRAND UNDER A COMMON STYLISTICS

The opening of Karlovo Way Park was approaching, and we had to take care of creating a teaser campaign to hint the audience about the new trendy place in the city, and a main campaign to introduce the official opening of the retail park. But before that, we had to think about the overall styling and visual identity that would best suit the brand.

So, using the most modern design techniques and trends representing shopping centres and retail parks, we created the visual identity of Karlovo Way Park – stylish, modern, shouting clearly – ‘We are the new shopping reward point’. Simultaneously with its enforcement, we started to develop social media – Facebook and Instagram.

Here’s what our teaser campaign looked like

With the teaser campaign we started our online communication and the results were much bigger than we expected:

Over 450 reactions to the post

Over 20 comments

Over 25 shares of the post

Over 30 private messages from users eager for us to open our doors.

After the teaser campaign, it was the turn of the main campaign. But in between, we warmed up the audience with creative posts and ones announcing the openings of individual tenants that users were clamoring for. And here are a few of them:

 

And so the hour to roll out the red carpet at the city’s new shopping hotspot – TURNED. We had to roll up our sleeves very quickly and wrack our creative brains to create the perfect key look, with just the right message. Again inspired by the brand idea and the brand’s main USP – the location, we came up with the most apt message – ‘Turn it into a shopping spree’. The key word here was ‘turn it around’ – it communicated both the brand idea and the usp-to embedded in the name, logo and tagline – the roundabout, and our CTA to the audience – it’s time to indulge in shopping without having to travel to the big city.

And here’s what our key vision looked like announcing the official opening of Karlovo Way Park

And so in less than a month we managed to accumulate:

Over 2000 likes on the Facebook page

Over 300 followers on the Instagram page

Reaching over 120 000 users

Generate over 50 social media inquiries

Anddddddd.. MOST IMPORTANTLY – happy consumers who couldn’t stop showing their excitement about the retail park opening in town both in comments under our posts and on private messages.

The work of the freaks didn’t end there. Alongside the social media launch, we also worked on developing the brand’s website, which you can view here – https://karlovowaypark.bg/

To get social media moving, as we got the city moving, we created a short video to help further brand awareness.

And so the town Karlovo, which had everything except a modern shopping point, now had 100% EVERYTHING, without ‘but’ and without exceptions. And the result for everyone was – successful. Our client realized a truly valuable brand idea, solving two major problems for the town of Karlovo. Karlovo and consumers. We created our next creative identity from scratch, adding it to our rich portfolio of experience in shopping centers and retail parks. And the consumers…they were more than happy.

If you want us to immerse you again and again in the sea of creativity, deep insights and the importance of brand ideation, don’t stop following our blog.