STAFF at Merry Hill are celebrating after bagging a merit award for their Style Icon competition.

The digital competition was launched by the shopping mall to find fashionistas who went the extra mile to emulate their favourite celebrities.

Shoppers were asked to nominate themselves or stylish friends by emailing Merry Hill with their photographs and details of the famous faces they aspired to look like.

A picture gallery was then featured on the mall’s Facebook page, with winner Philippé Ashfield from Cradley Heath selected as the winner by a panel of fashion experts, journalists and Facebook users.

The campaign generated over 6,000 new Facebook fans for the mall in just 12 weeks.

Marketing managers at the Westfield shopping centre were awarded the digital marketing accolade at the Council of Shopping Centres’ (BCSC) Purple Marketing Awards 2011 at a London ceremony.

Kelly Reed, Merry Hill marketing manager, said: “We are incredibly excited and proud of this achievement.

“We are using social networking initiatives to develop our online presence by creating great content that appeals to our followers.

“Style Icon enabled us to get closer to our customers, providing a platform for shoppers to share and discuss their fashion ideas.”