Purple Riot worked with Manchester Arndale for four years on The Empty Shop, a much-loved charity fashion campaign combining retail PR, community engagement, social media and celebrity support. The campaign collected 10 tonnes of clothing, raised more than £35,000 for local charities and won a CIPR PRide Gold Award.
Purple Riot delivered the integrated PR and communications campaign for The Empty Shop across its five-year run, spanning media relations, social media, event support, charity partnerships, celebrity engagement and retailer outreach.
The challenge was to keep an annual campaign feeling fresh. Each year we developed new stories, content and media hooks to give people another reason to get involved, while building recognition around The Empty Shop and its core messages of charitable giving, sustainable fashion and giving pre-loved clothing a second life.
With The Empty Shop returning annually for five years, our challenge was to keep the campaign fresh and newsworthy while building recognition year on year.
Each January, we developed a new PR strategy with fresh media hooks, stories and partnerships. We recruited a different high-profile Manchester personality to front each campaign, with supporters including Rowetta, Ashley Taylor-Dawson and Brooke Vincent, giving us a new launch story and helping the initiative reach different audiences each year.
We also engaged Manchester businesses and major fashion retailers including JD Williams, Boohoo and Simply Be, securing significant clothing donations while creating further opportunities for media coverage and extending the campaign into the wider business community.
Our proactive press office maintained momentum beyond launch day, using donation milestones, charity stories, celebrity activity, retailer involvement and campaign updates to keep The Empty Shop in the news throughout each collection period.
The strategy secured consistent regional and national coverage across online, print, television and radio, including the BBC, Key 103 and Manchester Evening News, helping establish The Empty Shop as a recognised annual Manchester campaign.
Social media kept the campaign visible throughout each January rather than focusing attention solely on launch day.
We created and managed content sharing donation updates, celebrating milestones, highlighting the charities benefiting from the campaign and encouraging Manchester Arndale’s audience to keep filling the shop.
Across five years, the combination of PR, social media, celebrity engagement, retailer support and community participation turned The Empty Shop from a one-off activation into a recognised annual Manchester campaign.
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