The law firm Royds Withy King has launched its latest thought leadership programme – Retail Reboot. The campaign looks to how the retail landscape will change and evolve as we emerge into a post-pandemic world.
Retail and real estate partner Vicky Hernandez and senior BD and marketing manager Robert Pinheiro tells The Professionals how the campaign is being rolled out and what it will achieve.
Can you tell us a little bit about the retail practice at Royds Withy King?
We work for a large number of retail clients including some of the biggest and fastest-growing brands in the UK and internationally including AllSaints, Scribbler, Monsoon Accessorize, Smyths Toys, Ted Baker, H Samuel, Caffe Nero and Neptune. We have a fundamental understanding of the unique challenges and needs of retailers having worked in most retail sub-sectors, including fashion, jewellery, food, furniture, toys and general merchandise.
Our multi-disciplinary team understand the issues our retail clients are facing and can support all their legal needs. Our in-depth knowledge of the sector and links with other professionals ensures we are well placed to help both large and smaller retailers with a fast, comprehensive and personal service at a competitive price.
We all know retail has had a torrid time over the past two years. What does the Retail Reboot campaign hope to achieve?
It’s fair to say our clients and the sector have had a turbulent time. Retail has arguably been one of the most impacted sectors as a result of the pandemic and the high street has endured one of its toughest trading periods in recent memory. There has been lots of bad news and we wanted to refocus the conversation on the good news.
Our Retail Reboot campaign looked at what could come out of Covid, subsequent lockdowns and the associated problems. We looked at the repurposing of high street spaces, reinvention of retailers and what they are doing to adapt for the future, the renaissance of the high street and how different stakeholders across the retail ecosystem could come together and change things for the better. Our campaign shone a bright light on the route out of our immediate predicament drawing on retail sector experts.
What are the key components of the Retail Reboot campaign?
The campaign kicked off with the launch of a thought-leadership report in collaboration with retail futurist Howard Saunders at a dinner in London in October to which we invited all contributors, key clients and contacts.
This was followed by a series of podcasts and webinars where we explored some of the themes in the report in more detail: the repurposing of retail units, the reinvention of the high street and the renaissance of retail parks. This allowed us to bring in other Royds Withy King teams to showcase their expertise as well as look at some regional collaborations.
How long will the campaign run for?
The campaign launched in October with a dynamic social media campaign inviting people to sign up to receive the report and receive further details of our podcast and webinar programme. We have a further series of webinars and a physical event coming up followed by a review on the efficacy and success of components in Spring.
Does this campaign reflect a wider shift towards campaign-based marketing at Royds Withy King?
“Essentially yes,” says Vicky Hernandez, Retail and Real Estate Partner. “This was a longer project than the usual BD initiatives I’ve historically been involved in. In the past activity has been somewhat reactive, rushing to get a blog or press release done in response to some breaking news.
“We decided to move away from the ad hoc, tactical activity and come together to run a multi-disciplinary campaign which would create opportunities for BD follow-up activities. This has resulted in much better internal engagement as people could see the different angles that interested them and get involved.
“The BD team has been great at utilising its collective skills to create a product (the thought-leadership report) and made it easy for fee-earners to engage with the campaign on social media as well as creating a podcast and webinar series. It’s been really easy to start conversations with clients and prospects about some of the issues covered in the report which has resulted in more opportunities to grow our business.”
How will the campaign evolve?
Robert Pinheiro, Senior Marketing & BD Manager said, “This is our first multi-disciplinary campaign and a great opportunity to engage with key clients, contacts and experts across the sector looking at the three themes: repurpose, reinvention and renaissance. We were able to leverage the themes and our contributors to provide commentary around how the high street is changing and what this change will mean for those stakeholders.
“Starting with the launch of the thought-leadership report for impact, the campaign evolved into a series of tactical activities across various channels to engender sustained interest over a longer, interrelated period. This allowed us to seed component parts as the campaign progressed to gain traction, brand recognition and increase interest.”
Where can people find more?
You can access the thought-leadership report here: https://www.roydswithyking.com/info-hub/shorthand_story/retail-reboot/ and listen to our podcasts here: https://www.roydswithyking.com/legal-podcast/
Email retail@roydswithyking.com for further details of our webinar programme.
