King's Cross Brings Back "Shop Off-Piste" Concept for Christmas Campaign Following Success of 2023 Iteration

Nov. 05, 2024

King’s Cross, London’s coolest neighbourhood of 2023 according to Time Out, is launching its Christmas campaign, "Shop Off-Piste" for the second year, following the success of its first run in 2023.

Developed in partnership with creative agency, elvis, "Shop Off-Piste" aims to drive footfall, visits and brand awareness this Christmas. Last year, the campaign increased consumer likelihood to shop at King’s Cross by 57%, and this year, elvis was tasked with developing the creative platform further to reflect the evolution of the King’s Cross brand.

While retaining last year’s creative concept, this year’s campaign has an evolved look and feel, evoking some of the edgy, outlaw attitude and bold art direction of the destination’s summer campaign, "Shop It Like It’s HOT", which sought to position King’s Cross as an extraordinary shopping destination. Once again, this year’s ski-inspired Christmas push reminds shoppers that there’s a traffic-free wonderland just around the corner – the alternative to the busy, traffic filled streets of other London shopping locations.

In line with the King’s Cross brand persona, elvis has designed the hero execution to stand out during the festive season by purposely avoiding the usual Christmas colours and clichés. Harnessing the iconic and warm festive backdrop of Coal Drop Yards, the campaign brings the visual cues of ‘off-piste’ to life through a wintery mountain scape, employing a punchy colour palette. The agency has created a dynamic and flexible holding device, shooting the campaign hero using wide-angle techniques to create the effect of a dramatic scaled-up model stepping out of the ad space. A key visual background layer and the snowflake motif also serve as elements that visually connect to the 'off-piste' concept.

Selected executions spotlight items available to buy in King’s Cross, with products nestled in the mountains and shown at huge scale, along with models wearing clothing from some of the destination’s retailers.

In keeping with the confident tone of the campaign, the ads feature less explanatory copy than last year, enabling their striking visuals to stand out.

elvis worked with photographer Lillie Eiger and production company Probation to capture sequential shots, in order to create a stop-motion effect in moving media formats.

The push is running across out-of-home, digital out-of-home, social and digital channels. Media planning and buying is by The Media People.

Neale Horrigan, Executive Creative Director, elvis, said:

“We’ve built on the success of last year’s ‘Shop Off-Piste’ campaign, keeping what worked and adding a bit more edge. This year, it’s about bringing in that boldness from summer’s ‘Shop It Like It’s HOT’ campaign, while still staying true to the ‘off-piste’ idea – as well as standing out by avoiding all the usual Christmas clichés.”

 

Chrissy Cullen, Place Marketing Director, King’s Cross, added:

“Over the last few years, our Christmas ad campaigns have been effective at driving consumer awareness of King’s Cross as a shopping destination. This year’s campaign combines fresh visuals, a striking colour palette and pared back copy, enabling us to cut through the festive noise and capture attention in a whole new way.”