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The latest craze to take the South African retail industry by storm is the USA originated Build-A-Bear Workshop. To drive awareness around the opening of their two new stores - in Menlyn Park Shopping Centre in Pretoria and Gateway Theatre of Shopping in Durban - Build-A-Bear Workshop turned to in-mall advertising specialists Primall Media.

Founded in 1997 in St. Louis, Missouri USA, Build-A-Bear Workshop is based on the premise that nearly everyone, regardless of age, has a special fondness for stuffed animals. When guests visit a Build-A-Bear Workshop store, they enter a magical teddy-bear-themed environment consisting of eight bear-making stations, allowing the consumer to custom-make their own teddy.

"When Build-A-Bear Workshop approached us to increase awareness of its two new stores, we decided that the most cost effective and practical solution was to make use of existing icons (illuminated poster billboards) within the shopping centre framework," commented Account Manager at Primall Media, Danielle Haggiyannes. "The icons are located at all entrances to the malls and in strategic areas that experience high foot traffic and dwell time."

Claira Mallett, Build-A-Bear Workshop's Chief Marketing Bear, expressed the value of the platform as part of their media mix, "We do dedicated 'Grand Opening' campaigns to support every new store we open. These have to balance the split objective of drawing the attention of the mall's existing shoppers to our store with people in the mall's catchment area to make a mall trip they hadn't necessarily planned on making. Primall Media's icon poster boards offered us the perfect way to direct existing mall shoppers to our new stores, using a clear and noticeable format in strategic locales to easily communicate what we do and where we are."

Build-A-Bear Workshop is still a relatively new concept in South Africa, but one that is quickly gaining momentum, and its latest campaign with Primall Media is sure to have kids begging for the opportunity to bring their very own furry friend to life.

The Build-A-Bear Workshop campaign will be running for the period 15 March-15 April 2008 to coincide with store openings in Gateway and Menlyn shopping centres.