Trevor the Travelator wins SCCA Retailer Marketing Campaign of the Year

Trevor the Travelator: turning disruption into an award-winning retailer campaign

A five-month closure of a critical access point at Townsville Shopping Centre could have created significant disruption for customers and retailers. Instead, it became the foundation for an award-winning campaign that combined customer journey planning, retailer support and local storytelling.

Haben has won Retailer Marketing Campaign of the Year at the 2026 Shopping Centre Council of Australia Marketing Awards for Townsville Shopping Centre’s Trevor the Travelator campaign.

The campaign was developed in response to the planned five-month closure of a critical travelator connecting the car park with Woolworths and surrounding retailers.

Rather than treating the works as an operational or construction communication challenge, the Townsville Shopping Centre team saw an opportunity to celebrate the evolution of the centre's vertical transport options with their local community.

The strategy centred on three priorities: keep customers moving, keep retailers visible and turn the reopening into a reason to visit.

Making a changed customer journey simple

With a key access point unavailable for an extended period, maintaining a clear and convenient journey through the centre was fundamental.

The team mapped the customer experience from car park arrival through to Woolworths, alternate lifts and stairs, and the frontages of affected retailers. This informed an integrated wayfinding system designed to make alternative routes easy to understand and follow.

Colour-coded floor paths were supported by branded hoarding, lift decals, stair signage and car park corflutes, with the message reinforced through digital screens, PA announcements, the centre website, e-newsletters and communications with retailers.

Together, these touchpoints created a consistent journey for customers, whether they encountered the campaign before arriving at the centre or while navigating the changed access arrangements.

Keeping retailers front and centre

Importantly, the campaign was designed around more than moving customers from one point to another.

Retailer visibility was built into the communications and wayfinding approach from the outset, helping customers continue to find and access businesses affected by the works.

This retailer-first thinking transformed an operational issue into a broader marketing challenge: how could the centre minimise disruption to trade while maintaining customer confidence and supporting the businesses most affected?

That approach helped maintain visitation through the works while contributing to specialty sales uplift and strong campaign ROI.

Giving the disruption a personality

The creative idea behind Trevor the Travelator gave what could have been a functional construction message a recognisable local identity.

The centre team partnered with a local radio station to name the new travelator, turning it into a character and building a story around its temporary absence and eventual return.

The campaign culminated in the reopening, turning the return of a piece of centre infrastructure into another reason for customers and the community to engage with the centre.

Creativity with commercial purpose

For Haben, the success of Trevor the Travelator reflects the role centre marketing can play within active asset management.

Effective centre marketing is not only about campaigns and events. It can help solve operational challenges, support retailers, influence customer behaviour and protect the commercial performance of an asset.

The campaign maintained customer visitation throughout the works, delivered specialty sales uplift and generated strong campaign ROI, while navigating a significant operational disruption.

Winning Retailer Marketing Campaign of the Year recognises both the creativity of the idea and the commercial thinking behind its execution.

Congratulations to the Townsville Shopping Centre Marketing and Centre Management teams, and everyone who contributed to bringing Trevor to life.