In a tough economic climate many couples have no choice but to put wedding plans on hold or scale down. Festival Place, Hampshire’s leading shopping destination, and its retailers joined together to turn a dream wedding into a reality for one lucky couple and launched a competition to ‘Win a Wedding’ worth £15,000.
The prize includes a luxury honeymoon to Barbados courtesy of Almond Resorts and Virgin Holidays, a reception for 50 guests at Hampshire Court Hotel, bridal hair and makeup, rings, dresses, a wedding cake and much more.
The competition launched on Valentine’s Day weekend with The Only Way Is Essex (TOWIE) star James ‘Arg’ Argent performing his famous swing covers to get everyone in the mood. Other guests included popular musician Fil Straughan and fashionista Ellie Pierce. Long queues quickly formed for ‘Arg’, who proved a big draw for teenagers AND their mums!
The launch resulted in national and regional coverage including the MailOnline. Locally, we worked with Your Hampshire and Dorset Wedding as the partner for the launch.
Exclusive wedding ‘passports’ were given to every participating couple on the day and entrants had two months to collect stamps from each contributing retailer. In April, 20 finalists were shortlisted and invited to take part in the competition’s finale.
On the day, anticipation was built by picking six finalists at random to take to the stage. Each couple picked a ring box. Opening them at the same time, the winning couple was revealed by the one box containing an engagement ring.
The winning couple have now set their date for October this year and BOTTLE will be accompanying them on their journey which will continue to be publicised via relevant media.
The competition has resulted in coverage with a PR value of more than £160k.