Published by Sue Johns-Chapman
Published Date 14.05.2025 
From roadworks and construction noise to the sudden closure of its main bus interchange, Bradford city centre faced a perfect storm of disruption between July 2024 and January 2025. But while the upheaval of the major Transforming Cities infrastructure project posed serious challenges for businesses and shoppers alike, it also sparked a standout collaboration between Bradford BID and Bevic Marketing & PR Services Ltd that would help turn the tide with creativity, resilience and a social-first strategy.
Bradford BID is the not-for-profit membership body representing 600 city centre businesses. Their mission is to drive economic growth and make Bradford a better place to live, work, and visit. With a lean team of just three full-time staff, every decision and every penny has to count.
Bevic Marketing & PR Services is a communications agency that’s worked with the BID team for the past three years. Bevic has been instrumental in bringing consumer-facing campaigns to life across social media and digital channels, helping translate big ambitions into tangible engagement.
The Challenge: Disruption on Every Corner
By mid-2024, Bradford city centre was grappling with extensive building works, newly pedestrianised areas under construction, and critically, the unexpected closure of its bus interchange. The result? Confused, frustrated locals and a serious risk of shoppers choosing to spend their money elsewhere.
Bradford BID’s goal was clear: stem the decline. While a 20% drop in footfall was forecasted, they set themselves a more optimistic, but still ambitious target of limiting the decline to 15%.
To do this, they needed to reach and reassure the people most affected, residents and visitors living within a 15-mile radius, many of whom had started to disengage from the city completely.
With a tight budget and even tighter timelines, the team needed a campaign that would make a splash -without wasting a drop. Together, Bradford BID and Bevic Marketing designed a ‘social-first’ video campaign that was equal parts informative, upbeat and visually engaging.
The video series would tackle key concerns head-on: How do you actually get into the city centre right now? What’s still open and thriving? And why is it worth sticking with Bradford through the upheaval?
Across eight videos—shot and edited professionally over several months—the campaign highlighted:
- Sustainable travel and parking options while public transport access was limited.
- Local shops, hospitality venues, and entertainment spots that were still very much open for business.
- The visible transformation taking place across the city—before and after footage showed clear progress and improvements to public spaces.
To maximise reach, videos were shared organically across BID’s social platforms, including TikTok, Instagram, Facebook and X, and supported with email marketing and local PR.
The Results: Turning Setback into Momentum
Despite all odds, the campaign exceeded every key metric:
- Footfall was down just 11% year-on-year, significantly better than the projected -20% and ahead of the -15% target.
- The video series reached over 1.1 million views, smashing the original target of 500,000.
- Social media engagement surpassed 37,000 interactions, showing that people weren’t just watching—they were engaging, sharing, and responding.
And perhaps most importantly, the public took notice. One local resident, Andy Holdsworth, summed it up:
“Seeing the changes and improvements to the city centre through the videos let me keep up to date with progress being made. It was good to see the support for local businesses and definitely made me more confident in visiting the city.”
Why It Mattered
As Bradford geared up to become the UK City of Culture 2025, the timing of this campaign couldn’t have been more critical. The city needed to show it was still open, still thriving, and still worth visiting. And it needed to do so with empathy and authenticity.
In a time of widespread cynicism and disruption, the BID didn’t hide. Instead, it leaned into the challenge, staying visible and positive – choosing connection over silence.
With just three full-time staff and the support of Bevic Marketing, this campaign proved that even modest resources can drive major impact when used wisely and creatively.
Bradford’s story isn’t just one of survival – it’s one of setting a new standard for how cities can adapt, communicate, and thrive, even under the hardest conditions.
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