BV Expansion - Bicester Village

Challenged to devise a strategy which would guarantee the attendance of over 250 national and international media, bloggers & social influencers, in order to maximise coverage and celebrate the newly expanded Bicester Village, which saw the addition of 34 brand new luxury fashion boutiques. Curated and delivered the epitome of a luxury dining and overnight experience the evening before launch to reaffirm Bicester as a luxury fashion destination not a ‘discounted outlet business’, a popular misconception. Identified and selected Aynhoe park (9 miles from Bicester) as the venue to host all 32 senior editors from key fashion publications, such as Sam Conti, Bureau Chief at WWD and Lucia Van Der Post, Associate Editor at FT How to spend it, to name but a few. In addition, Bicester Village struggled to achieve full media attendance at annual press days and launches, challenged mostly by the distance from London via coach and the inconvenience of busy commuter trains from London Marylebone. Our answer was simple but effective, leveraging an existing relationship between Value Retail and Chiltern Railways we negotiated for the very first time, the opportunity to remove a Silver Train from public service, chartering the service exclusively for launch day guests. Meticulous planning and the creation of simple brand assets such as embroidered headrests, table liners, linen napkins and bell boys, inexpensively disguised the standard service as ‘Bicester Express’.