Clarion were challenged with generating noise for Lakeside Shopping Centre in the run up to the busy Christmas season, with the aim of driving footfall and retail sales. With only a small budget available, and stiff competition from other South East shopping centres, they had to punch above their weight to get Lakeside noticed.

With traditional, one-off Christmas light switch-on events generally delivering a poor return on investment, and being a logistical challenge for shopping centres, Clarion opted for a completely unique, never-tried-before picture stunt that would have wide media appeal, and delight shoppers and retailers alike.

Lakeside's Living Christmas Fairy was born. For the first time ever, Clarion placed a real life Christmas Fairy - aka Chantelle Houghton (ex Big Brother, Essex girl) - on top of Lakeside's 50ft outdoor Christmas tree, delivering one of the most impactful and memorable PR photographs of the year.

The stunt delivered vastly increased awareness for the shopping centre and proved a hit with the media. Clarion generated press coverage in local press, national newspapers newspapers (The Times; The Telegraph; The Sun; The Daily Star; Daily Mail; The Metro and the Guardian) and celebrity magazines. In total, 48 clippings and broadcast mentions were generated - including ITV1's Daybreak - with a reach of 49,018,525 people.

Clarion won PR Week Campaign of the Year 2011 for this campaign for the innovative approach. Wherever you were, Lakeside's Living Christmas Fairy was the hot topic of conversation & the story caused a buzz on social networks too, with Twitter carrying the story far & wide. Recall of Lakeside in the local media showed a 21% increase Vs previous year. The event paid dividends for retailers. The campaign's success directly translated into footfall & sales with total November footfall 2.5% better on the year than October's comparison & average spend up 33% on the previous year.