Barking Riverside: A Bold Placemaking Vision for Living Differently

“A place to be, become and belong” introduced Barking Riverside as a development firmly anchored on the principles of placemaking. Developed by Spinach Branding alongside Barking Riverside Ltd, this brand proposition set the foundation for one of Europe’s most ambitious and exciting urban development projects.

Barking Riverside is further evolving an existing London neighbourhood. Its core mission from the start has been to provide a platform where existing and new residents can build an authentic and inclusive place to live and work – a dynamic area that encourages opportunities for all.

With this in mind placemaking – the concept of designing with place, people and nature in mind – has been fundamental to the long-term success of this development. As Barking Riverside’s brand proposition, “A place to be, become and belong.” has successfully been informing everything we do: from the masterplan to residential and commercial design, communications with residents and beyond, and with every touchpoint and signage, even commissioned artwork, reinforcing this powerful message.

Our initial campaign, “Hello River. River Life.”, introduced Londoners to the neighbourhood, highlighting its position within the context of the city and on the banks of the river Thames. Running across all media – on digital, print and film – the award-winning campaign proved a great success with the area gaining wider recognition as a great place to set down roots.

“With the brand established, we started a series of advertising campaigns to draw attention to Barking Riverside’s unique placemaking proposition,” explains Spinach Branding partner and branding director Leigh Banks. “‘Hello River.’ drew attention to Barking’s unique location and health and lifestyle benefits. Meanwhile, ‘River Life.’ built on this foundation but was even more specific on the benefits of Barking Riverside being the output of a placemaking strategy.”

He continues: “The campaign was extremely successful in helping demonstrate that due to Barking Riverside’s placemaking approach, the development is fundamentally different from other similar large-scale projects, offering real and meaningful benefits to people.”

Then came the pandemic. The global lockdown that followed saw many of us re-evaluate how we choose to live our lives. Family, friends, community, environment, a healthier work/life balance – they took centre stage. Living through a pandemic demonstrated that change is not only possible, but by embracing change we can live differently, live better.

Meanwhile, Barking Riverside had also evolved during this period. The opening of the Thames riverboat and Overground rail station now connects the area to the City and beyond, while the recognition of the local school as Outstanding by Ofsted has raised the bar further.

“The maturing of the development and pandemic meant Barking Riverside’s proposition had never been more relevant,” says Banks. This led to our latest creative concept: “Think differently. Live differently.” which takes the original proposition to its next stage.
“What we saw was a perfect alignment between our brand proposition and market sentiment,” says Banks. “If we wish to live differently, and are willing to embrace change, then Barking Riverside does offer the opportunity to live better. We see this as a call to action; it is an acknowledgement that there is an alternative to how we live.”

As the brand proposition, “A place to be, become, and belong.” will remain the overarching theme that leads the project. Meanwhile, this latest advertising campaign will act as an extension of this – a build-out from the brand proposition. Our creative brief is to capture and highlight, via film footage and stills, the benefits and opportunities of living in Barking Riverside – to join a growing community on the banks of the river Thames.

“Our creative concept ‘Think differently. Live differently.’ aims to demonstrate that we offer a different way to live that will reward the home buyer with a better life and future,” says creative director at Spinach Branding Adam Thomas. “Barking Riverside’s attributes, placemaking vision, and active community enable us to prove our bold proposition. We subtly respond to differing aspirations of families and young professionals through variations of copy and visuals.”

Spinach Branding picked up “Best Brand Identity for the Property Sector” at the 2022 Transform Awards Europe and “Best Marketing Campaign: Placemaking” at the Property Marketing Awards for the campaigns “Hello River. River Life.” for Barking Riverside.