CitiPark

Oct 1, 2013

Bonkers for conkers

In case you missed out, last week we ran a promotion offering visitors to our car parks the opportunity to pay for parking by using conkers. With car emissions rising across the country every day, CitiPark thought that the campaign would be a fantastic way to raise awareness for the environment.

Yes, conkers!

Our Merrion Centre and Clarence Dock car parks in Leeds as well as 30 Tariff Street in Manchester took part in the promotion and were inundated with customers excited about what we were offering.

Throughout the promotion, we received some fantastic coverage from the media. The Yorkshire Evening Post kindly featured us on the front cover of their newspaper, and we had articles on the Daily Mail, The Metro, The Telegraph and MSN websites. The BBC and ITN also kindly featured us on their television news.

As well as national UK coverage, we also made it into the worldwide media. From TIME magazine, to Fox News, to Canadian, Chinese and Indian newspapers, our Bonkers for Conkers campaign reached a truly global audience. Social media played it’s part in it’s success with over 8000 tweets recorded during the week-long campaign.

Our Managing Director Ben Ziff said “The response to the promotion was unbelievable. We’re so pleased that we gained such fantastic coverage from the press and how much our customers enjoyed it. I’m glad that we could raise a bit of awareness for the environment and also help out Hetchell Wood Nature Reserve in a small way”.

So what are we doing with all of the conkers?

Throughout the promotion, we’ve been working hand in hand with The Yorkshire Wildlife Trust. We’ve chosen to sponsor the Hetchell Wood Nature Reserve, based just outside the centre of Leeds and is a mix of woodland, species rich grassland with wet flushes. The variety of habitats provide refuge for the rare species which were once widespread in the local landscape.

With our donation, they intend to prepare the wood for the upcoming winter months and plant trees in areas that desperately need them. As well as sponsoring the nature reserve, we’ll also be donating all of our collected conkers to them.

Jonathan Leadley, Director of Development at Yorkshire Wildlife Trust, said: “This fantastic, but slightly bonkers idea will raise the profile of Yorkshire’s wonderful woodlands and hopefully raise a bit of cash to help us look after them. I hope some of the folk who get involved will enjoy a walk through the woods they will be helping too.”

Thank you

We’d like to say a huge thank you if you came down and paid with conkers, shared a post on social media, or wrote about it on your blog or website. We’ll be posting a follow up soon with how things are going at Hetchell Wood.

If you’d like to learn more about our car parks, season tickets or special offers, get in touch today.