Honestly “retailer opens shop” shouldn’t be a story.
But not every shop was originally opened by the same brand in 1921 (before it was forced to close in 2019). Not every shop is a flagship for a national treasure high street brand. And not every shop is owned by an ebullient and charismatic Canadian.
That’s probably why the coverage over the last couple of weeks has been wall-to-wall.
We kicked off with an announcement that the store would open which picked up a couple of hundred pieces including pictures across the iPaper, The Guardian and The Times as well as a tonne of others alongside.
With Doug Putnam (hmv’s owner) in tow we hit broadcast across the lead in week with Radio 4 You & Yours, Monocle Radio, LBC and Times Radio.
On opening day we had a wall of media with PA doing snaps and film, Reuters TV, SKY News, BBC London and BBC Breakfast, AFP and London Live all running around. There were lives with BBC Radio and Times Radio (again). That was swiftly followed by a raft of online coverage across The Guardian, Independent, The Times, Daily Mail, Evening Standard and METRO (and far too many more to list here).
We had Madness open the store with an old-school shoot and a wall of twenty photographers and crews before the in-store signing saw them get behind the tills. The fact that their album went to number one that day and we were the shot of the moment meant another tough day on the cuttings front.
The next day we woke up to a slew of print including a DPS in The Times, pieces across the Daily Mail, Daily Express, Daily Mirror, iPaper … and that was all topped off with a hum-dinger of a profile in the Sunday Telegraph.
A magnificent team effort to bag around 1,000 pieces from start to finish. Even one of the office days got in on the action as Olly the Jack Russell modelled for a launch snap.
