How can you attract visitors to towns and cities post Christmas with projection mapping?
Post Christmas, many towns and cities plan on how they would attract visitors and shoppers back to the high street.
Research suggests that footfall can drop by as much as -27% compared to previous weeks. This can have a major negative effect on local businesses.
To support local shops, businesses and restaurants, local authorities and business improvement districts look for ways to draw people back into the high streets. Field and Lawn have worked with many Councils and BIDs on lots of different placemaking projects to make High Streets more attractive and colourful to return to.
In Cambridge, we delivered several permanent lighting installations to illuminate buildings, trees and shopping streets. We also worked to deliver a Projection Mapping event, the first of its kind in Cambridge. We selected the Guildhall as a central and prominent building for the city to project on to and designed a video fit to showcase the history and highlights of Cambridge. A draft video was created first following a brief set by the Council and then we developed it collaboratively over a period of weeks to reach the final design.
The 8-minute video was projected on the Guildhall on a loop from 6pm-9pm with a 1-minute break between showings every night for 2 weeks. February was chosen as a time typically when footfall is lowest following the Christmas period and when the days are short and evenings still dark. It was a great success, drawing in crowds to spend their evenings in town to catch a showing, but ultimately encouraging them to shop and visit local bars and restaurants.
Projection Mapping is a unique and wonderful opportunity to add to a town or city’s calendar of events. The video content could be educational, commemorative or artistic. The actual event is all remotely controlled so everything is looked after. You can just sit back and enjoy the show.
