The Midlands office of Grayling has helped a Leicester shopping centre achieve its best Christmas ever.

Highcross Leicester saw a 3.5 per cent increase in like-for-like sales in December and an increase of seven per cent in total sales.

Grayling Midlands’ Highcross team – led by associate director Caroline Spence along with Tom Rawlings and Hayley Longdin – issued news releases based on the centre’s weekly sales and footfall throughout December, as well as arranged for BBC Radio Leicester to broadcast live on the mall regularly. The Grayling team also facilitated live broadcasts from BBC national television to launch the sales at Highcross’ flagship John Lewis and Next stores on December 27.

Michael Holland, marketing controller at Highcross, said: “We’ve been working with Grayling for four years, and the team continue to deliver great results on a range of campaigns. However, the Christmas and sales communications in 2010 beat all expectations, delivering a 100:1 return on investment on our PR budget. Not only did the team generate significant regional coverage across our core media but a large number of national articles, which surpassed a very successful 2009 campaign.”

Grayling’s Caroline Spence said: “Across the company we recognise the importance of the Christmas period to our shopping centre clients, so ensure we take all necessary steps to provide the support they need, which includes working outside of normal office hours and being onsite regularly to ensure that visiting members of the media get everything they need.”