Residents become face of Real Redditch

By Ian Dipple Thursday 18 October 2012 Updated: 22/10 18:18

Buy photos » (back) Nigel Coles, Gavin Skelding, Les Harborne, Anne Harborne, (middle) Anne Andrews and Christine Whitby and (front) Pat Douglas are some of the faces of the Kingfisher Shopping Centre’s Real Redditch Campaign. (s)

A GROUP of Redditch residents have become the stars of a new advertising campaign run by the Kingfisher Shopping Centre.

The Real Redditch Campaign was launched in the summer as a way of celebrating the town's community and helping to make the centre more attractive to shoppers.

The idea was to cover empty units with promotional boards, but rather than use generic models the centre's management team wanted to feature images of real people who live, work and shop in Redditch as well as their thoughts on what they love about the town and the Kingfisher Centre in particular.

A competition was run with the Redditch Standard to find groups of people which represented different categories - families, friends, couples, etc - and the winners were then treated to a makeover, using products from Kingfisher based retailers, a professional photoshoot and £100 gift card to spend in the centre.

The boards were put up for the first time this week and yesterday (Thursday) the winners came face-to-face with themselves.

Lakeside couple Les and Anne Harborne joked it was 'frightening' to see their picture up on the mall.

"It was a lot of fun and hopefully it will give people a laugh and make them smile," Les said.

Anne added she was already coming to terms with being recognised while out shopping.

"A lot of people are looking at you and you think, is my hair alright? It's weird when you are not used to it."

Southcrest resident Nigel Coles added he was surprised to win as he did not consider himself very photogenic.

"I'm normally quite camera shy," he said.

"It's a great idea, it's really brightened up the empty shops."

Pat Douglas from Webheath and Batchley resident Christine Whitby have been friends for over 40 years and said they had a lot of family and friends who were making a special visit to the centre just to see their picture.

Christine said: "I've got family from Devon and Yorkshire coming to have a look."

Pat added: "It's nice when people are out shopping they will be able to walk around and see people they know on the wall. My son's coming over from Australia next year so I hope it's still up by then."

Beth Gray, the centre's marketing manager, said the campaign had enabled real people in the local community to come together and work with the centre.

"We are really pleased with how the final images look."