Barrow: Easter Town Trail
There’s nothing better than spending time outdoors in that fresh Spring air, especially with the extra (eggstra? sorry…) incentive of a family trail – full of fun and with loads of eye-catching Easter Eggs to hunt along the way. This blog tells you everything you need to know about how we created Barrow BID’s Easter Town Trail.
Easter Town Trail.
This is the vision that Barrow BID had in mind when they contacted Felltarn Friends and asked if we could help turn their idea into reality… in just two-and-a-half-weeks! We said the same thing we always say to a new design challenge: yes!
Barrow BID got in touch…
Due to the tight deadline, Barrow BID helped with the planning of the trail and left us to get on with the creative design side of things. 12 businesses within the Barrow BID zone were identified as being the key locations for the beautiful, bright Easter Egg designs to be placed in their windows. Each of these businesses were contacted and of course they agreed with the plans to feature on the Easter Town Trail – who wouldn’t want to?!
The trail map was designed with an Easter Bunny theme to tie-in with a prize kindly donated by one of the 12 businesses – the Barrow BID Easter Bunny. The route map showed the locations of the Easter Egg pictures with a space for trail participants to draw their own sketch of the pictures on each of the eggs (look at the pictures to see the eggs).
At the final location, each child who had completed the Easter Town Trail with their 12 sketches entered the competition to win the Barrow BID Easter Bunny, and also received a very welcome chocolatey prize – yum!
Spreading the word…
Marketing flyers for local primary schools were also designed, printed and distributed by Felltarn Friends. All the schools in the area were more than happy to help promote the Easter Town Trail by sending the flyers home in children’s book-bags.
Once approved and printed, the maps were brought over The Forum in the centre of Barrow. This was the pick-up-point and the start of the trail.
Felltarn Friends used their social media channels, alongside the Barrow BID Facebook and Twitter accounts to get the message out to the community that this fantastic FREE event was launching on their doorstep.
Success!
The Barrow Easter Town Trail was a great success with hundreds of maps picked up from The Forum. Feedback during and after the event showed that it was a success for the town as a brilliant family day out. This is what the Barrow BID manager – Phil Collier had to say:
“Great effort from you both in pulling the BID Bunny Trail together at such short notice…we got some great publicity from it and it has been viewed positively. This has generated an additional 600 people in town that probably wouldn’t have been otherwise!!”
The reverse of the trail map was filled with bespoke puzzles and games for some added entertainment.
Below is a summary of the Barrow BID Easter Trail process.
Initial Brief from Barrow BID:
First, we need a simple brief from you regarding the theme or objective you want to focus on. Has there been some recent regeneration of an area or a new feature to promote, or you want to create a wonderful family day out in your town?
Plan and design an Easter Trail for children around the BID Zone in Barrow.
To run throughout the Easter school holidays.
To feature a competition for participants to win the Barrow BID Bunny.
Trail maps to be FREE to participants.
2.5 weeks to complete the design and print.
Design, print and distribute marketing material for schools and across social media.
Phase 1: Information Gathering and Planning.
Next, we liaise with businesses within the BID area to give each one the opportunity to take part. Asking them if they’d be happy popping something in the window to look out for on the town trail, place an advert on the trail map, or provide a special offer for trail participants.
Contact BID members to gather numbers for participation.
Plan routes to include all interested businesses.
Phase 2: Design.
Then it’s time to get creative and design your town trail! The Felltarn Friends style is quite distinctive and instantly recognisable, yet we produce something bespoke and unique with each project.
Easter Trail to be in a recognisable ‘Felltarn Friends’ style.
To feature the Barrow BID Bunny.
12 Easter Egg designs to find in windows and fill in the blanks on the map.
Flyers to print and social media banners and headers to be designed.
Phase 3: Print and Distribution.
Once you’ve approved your town trail design, we send it to print, or send you the artwork to print yourselves, the choice is yours. We’ll design and print your flyers to be distributed to local schools, cafés and community hubs.
1000 Easter Trail maps to be printed.
Trail maps delivered to The Forum by launch date.
Flyers printed and distributed by Felltarn Friends to all primary schools in the area.
Flyers distributed to local businesses to be placed on countertops.
Easter Egg pictures printed and delivered to each of the 12 businesses and placed in their windows.
Phase 4: PR and Marketing.
We can help with social media marketing too by designing the graphics for an advertising campaign for your Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and website.
Advertise the trails prior to launch across the South Lakes/Furness region via social media.
Advertise in local publications.
Press release written by Felltarn Friends for local news outlets.
Ongoing social media event shares.
Top-up of flyers on countertops.
Also – include a selection of adverts on the trail map to promote additional services, projects and incentives in your town to get people into the BID area.
Get in touch!
Contact Amy amy@felltarn.co.uk or 07846805602 and have a chat about how we can help you achieve a higher footfall and an increase in business awareness around your BID zone.
We are currently looking at projects for Spring, Easter and even Summer – take a look at the blogs to get a feel for what we can do!