VIRGIN MEDIA O2

Reimagining retail at the UK’s largest telco experience store

Promotional Marketing | Experiential Marketing

The challenge

This wasn’t just another store opening- this was the UK’s largest telco experience store, built to reimagine what a customer-first, lifestyle-led retail space could be.

The brief was ambitious: capture attention, drive meaningful engagement, and set a new benchmark for how customers experience the Virgin Media O2 brand. The space needed to feel as forward-thinking as the products it showcased—a destination aligned to how people live, move, and connect today.

Our competitors are insanely jealous! Thank you to the TCC team for everything you’ve done across the year but most definitely with the jewel in the crown of Stratford!

Mark Leonard, Head of Mobile Division Property, Systems & Infrastructure, Virgin Media O2

From insight to ignition

As lead creative partner, TCC brought this store to life from the ground up.

We shaped the entire journey: from initial strategy, customer behaviour insight and spatial design, to digital storytelling, content creation and live activation delivery. We built a retail experience that reflected how people live, move, and connect today—blending creativity, craft and customer insight into every touchpoint.

Retail meets theatre

From the outside in, we made a bold statement. We turned the windows into unmissable visual spectacles designed to disrupt, delight and draw in audiences.

A fully animatronic custom-made Bubl waved from a height, backed by an oversized red pin marking the new epicentre of connected life. Opposite, the entertainment world burst through 5-metre lightboxes —featuring Nickelodeon characters, five custom digital cubes, and layered light and prop design to create a sense of movement and depth.

Bringing product USPs to life

O2’s value propositions are strong, but complex. Our job was to make them tangible. So, we translated every product USP into something real, visual, and emotionally resonant.

  • A roaming offer? Became an airline-themed zone, complete with plane seats and holiday giveaways.
  • Fitness perks? Became an immersive gym space, complete with a branded Batak game to test agility.

Every zone, every prop, every pixel—designed to feel familiar and exciting. Built to drive discovery.

Eight ways to discover ‘you time’

At the heart of the space: eight immersive Discovery Zones. Each one designed to connect O2’s tech to real-life moments—gaming at home, working on the move, staying fit, travelling abroad.

Built on the insight that emotion drives engagement, the zones created a natural, hands-on journey that answered buying questions. As customers explored, the value of the O2 offering revealed itself authentically and intuitively. By the time they reached a sales rep, they weren’t just interested. They were invested. All that was left was choosing the right tech.

Launch-level energy

Dermot O’Leary on the decks. A roaming hospitality team. Barista bars. Competitions. Instant-win giveaways. QR-powered journeys. It was built for buzz, but backed by strategy: a full-funnel, geo-targeted media plan that tied every live moment to measurable impact.

Experience, delivered

The store became a destination. A space to explore, discover, and play.

Visitors moved freely through the zones, driven by a ‘Priority Passport’ mechanic that encouraged exploration and rewarded engagement. In the Roaming Zone, plane seats and holiday vibes created Instagrammable moments. Elsewhere, hands-on demos, surprise-and-delight activations and intuitive storytelling kept curiosity high.

The results

  • 3M+ impressions across digital & OOH
  • 36% uplift in weekend footfall vs. previous store
  • 2,942 tracked store visits from digital ads
  • 449% CTR uplift on native ads
  • 827 in-store game plays
  • 642 QR scans across zones
  • 494 competition entries
  • 52.38% store visit conversion from 18–24s on opening day
  • 50 goodie bags gone in 30 minutes

A future-facing first

This was more than a launch. It was the debut of the UK’s largest telco experience store—and the next chapter in experiential retail.

TCC delivered a launch that redefined what a store can be: a stage for storytelling, a space for discovery, and a living example of brand made real.

When it comes to groundbreaking future-focused retail, we needed groundbreaking retail thinking: from strategy, to design, implementation and launch. O2 Westfield tested every TCC skillset – and we just love the results.

More like this

Immersive experiences campaign marketing by TCC
Copyright ©2025 - TC Communications Ltd. All rights reserved