GRAND Arcade in Cambridge has beaten competition from the world’s finest shopping centres to win a prestigious global marketing award at a ceremony in Las Vegas.

GRAND Arcade in Cambridge has beaten competition from the world’s finest shopping centres to win a prestigious global marketing award at a ceremony in Las Vegas.

The Cambridge centre was one of only two UK shopping centres to be shortlisted for the International Council of Shopping Centres (ICSC) Best-of-the-Best Awards, and came away from the ceremony with the ICSC Honoree Award for Advertising Effectiveness.

The prize was awarded for Grand Arcade’s Architects of Fashion campaign, recognising the creative content and the effectiveness of the campaign, which marked the centre’s launch and first Christmas.

Lidia De Luca, marketing manager of Grand Arcade, said: “It is an incredible achievement for Grand Arcade to receive an accolade of such international standing in the face of competition from many of the biggest and the best centres in the world.”

“We wanted an innovative campaign that was pioneering in terms of shopping centre advertising. The campaign had to reflect the range of premier brand retailers that Grand Arcade has, establish Cambridge on the fashion map and be effective in terms of customer response. Our success is confirmed by this award.

“The Best-of-the-Best Awards is results driven, not just about aesthetics, and we had to demonstrate the effectiveness of the campaign in terms of customers, footfall and advertising recall.

The campaign, created by agency Tomlin Bean under the direction of DTZ, featured 100ft fashion images projected on to Cambridge’s landmark buildings and a series of television adverts.

It has already been awarded the 2009 European Gold ICSC Solal Award in Vienna.

Tracy Hulme, centre manager at Grand Arcade, said: “Business continues to be strong which is testament to the success and popularity of the centre. Despite the retail sector experiencing challenging times, we have not compromised on our mix of shops and are committed to creating a contemporary and unique retail destination in the heart of the historic city.”