Brand collaborations and partnerships are a common sight these days. But what does it take to stand out?

The Trafford Centre should know as it is shortlisted for the Brand Partnership of the Year at this year’s RG Retail Excellence Awards.

Gemma Ward, head of marketing, at the Trafford Centre takes us behind the scenes of its partnership with JD Sports.

She explains that JD Sports choosing the shopping centre as the location for its biggest store globally was a huge opportunity for the centre.

She says: “The launch provided an amazing opportunity to celebrate JD’s heritage as a local retail success story while also recognising its position as a global leader in sports fashion.”

It felt like a “very natural” partnership to the Trafford Centre as both firm’s are focused on offering  “standout customer experiences”. Ward adds that the collaboration was a chance for the pair to “generate real excitement and bring people into the destination”.

She says: “From the beginning, we both wanted this to feel like a cultural moment rather than simply a store launch. We know that our visitors want experiences alongside shopping, so we worked closely with the JD team to support a programme that combined retail, entertainment and brand activations.

“Whether it was celebrity appearances, competitions, branding or hands-on brand experiences, the idea was to create something memorable at every touchpoint.”

Due to the size of the launch, Ward shares that one of the key focus areas for The Trafford Centre was making sure “the customer experience remained seamless”.

She notes:”We worked closely with the JD team on everything from customer flow and queue management to staffing, event production and wayfinding throughout the centre.

“When you have thousands of people arriving for a launch weekend, planning and communication become incredibly important. The partnership worked so well because there was a genuine collaborative approach across all teams involved.”

She explains that success for the campaign came from having a “shared vision”. Both the Trafford Centre and JD Sports wanted to create an exceptional experience.”

She says: “There was also a real commitment to collaboration across marketing, operations, events and retail teams. Combined with strong brand partnerships, great content and an incredible in-centre experience, it created something that resonated with customers and delivered strong commercial results for everyone involved.”

Social media had its role to play in the collaboration, building hype for the launch and helping to extend the experience beyond the physical event.

Ward comments: “JD’s core audience is Gen Z, so we ensured any content and channels used appealed to this audience – such as using TikTok and Instagram Reels.

“We used social-first led content from the launch, creating highly shareable moments such Usain Bolt’s 100m track race outside the store and Beta Squad’s appearance. Spotlighting JD talent drove massive engagement, generating 3M+ views and 100K+ impressions.”

Younger audiences are looking for “experiences that feel authentic, exciting and worth sharing”.

She says: “Collaborations like this allow us to introduce live events, exclusive experiences, influencer and creator engagement, and opportunities for customers to feel part of something bigger.

“We continuously look at what matters most to younger consumers and create campaigns that reflect those interests and behaviours. We always plan each channel by audience, tailoring content to appeal to the audience rather than creating something generic.”

She adds: “I hope people remember how exciting physical retail can be when it’s done really well. This launch showed that shopping destinations can offer much more than simply making a purchase. We want people to leave feeling that Trafford Centre is somewhere they can always discover something new and exciting.”

The JD Sports opening was at the centre of the Trafford Centre’s first-ever sports and lifestyle category campaign. The marketing drive ran across the shopping destination at the same time as the opening and promoted the centre as the go to destination for sportswear and athleisure.

The campaign ran across influencer content, events, PR, social media, CRM activity and experiential moments.

She says: “For us, it’s a great example of our wider strategy – rather than simply talking about shopping, we’re creating destination-wide campaigns that combine retail, entertainment and experiences.

The Trafford Centre is always looking to the future as it has seen first-hand how much consumers appreciate experience-led retail. It is keeping an eye out for new exciting partnerships and events.

She says: “For example, we’ve just partnered with lululemon for their upsized store launch to create an onsite padel court which was massively popular and provided some amazing content opportunities. We’re always up for working with brands that share our ambition to create memorable, out of the ordinary experiences.”

The Trafford Centre joins JoJo Maman Bébe, Hamleys, Lidl, Lush and many more in the Brand Partnership of the Year category at this year’s RG Excellence Awards. See the full shortlist, and all categories here. This year’s awards will be hosted at the Underglobe on 14 October 2026. 

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