Establishing The Glass Works as the new heart of Barnsley
The Glass Works: Redefining a town centre
The Glass Works is a £220m investment that’s central to the redevelopment of Barnsley Town Centre.
Since it opened in 2021, we’ve worked closely with a number of key stakeholders to establish The Glass Works brand, raise awareness and increase footfall - which we’ve achieved by delivering engaging social media content to a following of almost 30,000 people that we’ve built from zero.
As part of the pre-launch, we defined the messaging strategy - highlighting various opportunities and challenges that the area and the development would face - which laid the foundation for the digital communications and campaigns we created.
Since its opening, we’ve led on The Glass Work’s brand development and its roll-out across digital channels by planning a busy content schedule and designing and delivering all creative and marketing campaigns, which has strategically brought the redevelopment to life and exceeded the demands of all the stakeholders across Barnsley.
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80%
Uplift in footfall
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28K
Following built from zero
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300K+
Organic reach per year
Showcasing retail and dining experiences
Part of our ongoing challenge has been to establish and present a unified brand for The Glass Works.
By aligning their retail, dining, and leisure offer under one clear brand, we’ve helped to create the same positive experience for each type of visitor to The Glass Works. Tenant-based marketing has been a key part in achieving this, and we’ve worked closely with individual businesses, carefully balancing their messaging to suit and strengthen the wider brand offer, whilst supporting their individual needs.
Harnessing seasonality and trends
Seasonal moments offer huge brand development opportunities for destinations when approached with the right balance of creativity and consistency.
At The Glass Works, we’ve delivered vibrant festive activations, seasonal campaigns and trend-led initiatives - all with one eye on the scheme's long-term brand goals.
By tailoring messaging to a wide range of audience groups - from festive shoppers to summer explorers - we’ve maintained energy and engagement across the calendar year. Every seasonal campaign is designed to drive regular footfall whilst keeping the overarching brand vision front and centre.
Boots on the ground content
Beyond branded content, we’ve also delivered a range of honest, boots-on-the-ground storytelling, capturing real experiences through the eyes of people genuinely engaging with the destination.
By prioritising honesty and relatability, we’ve created content that feels human, accessible, and true to the spirit of The Glass Works. Every day, moments become the stories that people want to be part of.
Reaching new audiences
Whether promoting events, supporting tenants or embracing seasonal campaigns, we’ve worked on paid campaigns for a range of objectives and audiences.
At the heart of our paid activity has been our test-and-learn approach - we’ve continually explored new ways to get the right message in front of the right audience. From content tailored to specific audiences to left-field approaches to targeting, we’ve continually tried new approaches that have continued to deliver.
