A big focus for us here at Limited Space is all about looking at the future of our environment and how the space is now home to activities and experiences far beyond that of the traditional retail-therapy session.

We have seen an ever-increasing growth in investment into leisure offerings as the hunger for entertainment continues to trend upwards, with the environment lending itself perfectly to communities of people looking to escape from their day-to-day formalities.

With this, we are also seeing a change in the physical structure of these spaces, now becoming more tailored to a more switched on and self-aware consumer – with every activity now having the potential to be snapped and shared with an army of online followers.

Recently taking center stage at Bluewater, Greenhithe, was the Selfie Factory – an interactive pop-up experience for selfie-taking designed to provide consumers with reels of content specifically to populate social channels with incredible situational photos.

We recently spoke with Managing Director, Will Bower, to discuss all about how and why they got started:

Q: Congratulations on the launch of Selfie Factory! How has the experience been for you so far?

A: Thank you! It’s been a whirlwind but the feedback has been fantastic and wholly well received by visitors to the centre


Q: What is it about this environment that's really worked for you?

A: Bluewater is in the top 5 shopping centres in the UK and when we got the invitation to set-up here it was a no-brainer. We’d previously been bringing people to us in the locations we’d set up in but the footfall here has been working for us in raising awareness and generating walk ins… plus the parking is free so that’s a big bonus!


Q: Is there a particular group of people who've been attracted to the Selfie Factory so far?

A: Yes, we’ve had a lot of teen/tween girls enjoying the environments as well as Instagram Models/Photographer duos but we’ve also seen a huge variety in the visitor base - we’ve had a family of three generations attend, a Take That groupie gang, brownie guides, birthday parties, big brands, cheerleaders and so many more.


Q: We often talk about visits to this environment as being very sociable - people tend to visit with friends or family as part of a group. Is that something that you've noticed?

A: It certainly is! I believe we only had a handful of people attend on their own. The remainder of thousands all attended as part of a group, be it two or ten, usually as friends.


Q: How successful has this experience been for you so far? Can you tell us how many tags the Selfie Factory got on social media?

A: We’ve been very satisfied at how Selfie Factory has performed in Kent. The social stats are incredibly hard to track as the exposure of the factory will have reached millions from user generated uploads which we won’t have access to, we can probably boast around half a million plus impressions on our own socials. We’ve also had a range of influencers attend each week which will skyrocket the total even more, notably an account nearing 1 million followers and Tom from the boyband, The Wanted!


Q: Did most people tend to pre-book or did they sign-up on the day?

A: The majority pre-book.


Q: Which has been the most popular wall - which background are we going to see most over on Instagram? Were people uploading images whilst on site or do they tend to save them for later?

A: Generally the journey is: story uploads on site and feed uploads at a later time. It’s hard to say which has been the most popular but there always seems to be a visitor in the bath in the bathroom and the pink ball pit probably has the most time spent overall!


Q: And just how much have people got into this experience? Are there any tales from this experience that you can share with us?

A: I always like to share the story of a visitor who got changed ten times during her visit with us at a previous site but a model during the Bluewater run has since run that up to twenty changes!


Q: You're moving onto Brighton next but would you consider running in the same environment again sometime soon?

A: Nothing’s confirmed in the way of the next location yet, we’ve got some exciting discussions happening up and down the country but we’d love to return to Bluewater sometime in the near future!


You can find out more about Selfie Factory on their website: