The challenge
Westfield London and Stratford City had no shortage of things to talk about. New stores, major events, fashion, food and entertainment created a constant stream of potential content. The challenge was making any of it earn attention on TikTok and Instagram.
On those platforms, Westfield was competing with creators, celebrities, entertainment and culture for the same few seconds of someone’s attention. Straightforward retail content could communicate what was happening at the centres, but it was unlikely to travel far beyond people already looking for it.
Since February 2023, our brief has been to build a more distinctive social presence: growing engagement and followers, increasing visibility, supporting launches and events, and keeping Westfield culturally relevant in ways that could ultimately contribute to visits and sales.
The content needed to make the destination feel like part of what people were already watching and talking about.
Our solution
We developed a deliberately more expressive, video-first approach for TikTok and Instagram Reels. The content strategy took its cues from the platforms themselves: trending formats, pop culture, celebrity moments, memes and the behaviours already driving participation and sharing.
Retail stories were then woven into those conversations. Store launches, products and experiences could appear through formats audiences already understood, giving commercial content a more natural place in the feed without losing the Westfield brand behind it.
That changed the role of social from a channel announcing what was happening at the centres into an ongoing entertainment layer around the Westfield experience.
Video became central to that approach, giving the team more freedom to respond quickly to cultural moments, create recurring formats and bring the personality of the centres into the content.
The strategy also gave major events and retailer launches access to an established social language, so they could enter channels through formats already proven to attract attention instead of beginning from a conventional promotional post every time.
The outcome
Westfield’s TikTok audience grew by 84%, while average engagement increased by 178% and shares rose by 363%. The account reached one million likes, with 675,000 added during 2023 alone.
Instagram followed the same trajectory. Followers increased by 13%, saves rose by 181%, and the organic reach of Reels increased by 296%.
The scale of sharing and saving is particularly valuable for a destination brand. Westfield’s content was moving beyond passive viewing and becoming something audiences actively passed on or kept.
The social presence now gives Westfield a much stronger way to participate in culture around the stores, experiences and events it brings together, with an audience that has grown alongside the change in content.
The result is a social model built for the platforms Westfield is actually competing on: faster, more culturally responsive and capable of turning retail activity into content people choose to watch, engage with and share.
