In Character

Steve Andrews carved his way to yet another successful seasonal program this past Easter. The skilful deputy centre manager at The Hildreds in Skegness, UK made a display based on The Gruffalo children’s book and tuned it into an attraction that helped raise more than £1,000 (over $1,500) for Marie Curie Cancer Care (MCCC).
The interactive display featured an eight-foot tall Gruffalo alongside the book’s other characters—the mouse, fox, owl and snake. A life-sized animated baker narrated Julia Donaldson’s award-winning tale, thanks to a recording that Andrews had made beforehand. And, at the press of some “smelly buttons,” visitors could also catch a whiff of the baker’s Gruffalo crumble, owl ice cream, scrambled snake and roasted fox.
“Initially, I intended to get a costume character of the Gruffalo from [a specialist company] but they couldn’t supply him, so I decided to make him instead, along with all of the other characters from the book,” Andrews explained.
“I think it worked out better because we could run the event for a far longer period of time.”
The Gruffalo remained at The Hildreds from March 27 through April 18 to coincide with the Easter break. One could say that the Gruffalo display took on a life of its own, attracting tens of thousands of visitors. However, much planning went on in the background.
“I contacted Pan Macmillan who are the [book’s] publishers and they gave me free licence to reproduce The Gruffalo using my usual polystyrene method. I initially spoke to Lisa Grindon, their PR and marketing manager, simply asked if I could use the image of the Gruffalo and sent her photos of other displays I had made. She was great and said that I could use the image as I was using it for charity but also using it as a marketing tool to raise awareness and promote the Gruffalo brand within our shops,” Andrews recalled.
“Out of 30 units, six shops within the center stocked [Gruffalo] merchandise so I asked them all to make window displays and advertise the event in their shops. I also asked for donations of Gruffalo-related items for a competition whose prizes included an array of Julia Donaldson books, DVD’s, coloring books [and other items]. At Lisa’s suggestion, I visited the Gruffalo website, [where] they have an activities section that includes many coloring and craft sheets. These were easily photocopied and placed in receptacles within and around the center. Over the two-week Easter period, we gave out over 10,000 copies. Each copy had the website details printed on the bottom to also advertise The Gruffalo site.”
The Hildreds gave out free chocolate bars from the display on Easter Sunday and held a painting competition linked to the Gruffalo website for a chance to win more themed merchandise. All of this resulted in a 22-percent increase in traffic, while shopper dwell time shot up by 25 percent.
According to Andrews, the MCCC fundraiser happened by accident.
“Each year we like to dedicate the display to a charity and invite [that organization] to come along and sell pin badges and give out information. This year we chose Marie Curie Cancer Care, as it is a charity very close to my heart. I contacted a local printer who copied a page from The Gruffalo showing the [character] peeking around a tree and had the words ‘Guess who’s visiting the Hildreds this Easter?,’ ‘Guess who’s hiding in the Deep Dark Wood inside the centre?’ and a note at the bottom saying, ‘All proceeds to be given to Marie Curie Cancer Care.’ We were astounded by how generous the public was,” he said, adding that visitors simply tossed their spare change into the display.
“I was very surprised at how popular the display was and how many people took photos of it. As most of our visitors at this time of the year are from outside our catchment area, we hoped that this would be another tool that would help to promote the center when they showed the photos to their families.”
That initial customer support turned into a PR coup for The Hildreds. After seeing pictures of the center’s Gruffalo in the press, Julia Donaldson asked if she could have the sculpture to form a centerpiece in an exhibition that was to be held at Glasgow’s York Hill Pediatric Hospital, where her husband worked as a senior pediatric consultant. The Gruffalo will then be auctioned off to benefit Artlink Central, an art-based charity of which Donaldson is a patron.
“I couldn’t be happier for one of my displays to go on to do good outside of Skegness and hopefully raise lots more money for charity,” Andrews said.
“Altogether I think it was a very successful promotion both for us and also Pan Macmillan because it didn’t really cost either of us anything, but we both benefited greatly by working together.”