SCC 5 FEATURE: COMMERCIALISATION
The Main EVENT
Well-planned events can raise revenue as well as driving footfall M
ore and more events are being staged at shopping centres up and down the country, creating a point of difference and helping centres to improve dwell time
and spend. Most events are free for shoppers, paid for by accompanying promotions, but events with a ticket price can also be successful. So, what are the benefits of events? And how can they feed into commercialisation? Fashion shows are becoming ever-more popular. The Mall at
Cribbs Causeway has recently staged its 10th Bristol Fashion Week. The event is biannual with a Spring/Summer show in March and an Autumn/Winter one in September. Ticket prices start at £8.50 and the 380-seat venue is sold out
for every one of the 18 catwalk shows shown over five days. The shows are hosted by TV stylist Mark Heyes and celebrity hairdresser Andrew Barton and preview the best designer and high street fashions from The Mall’s retailers. Bristol Fashion Week is the brainchild of The Mall’s marketing
manager, Maria Crayton: “Shoppers love it,” she said. “Importantly the retailers also buy into it, recognising its value in terms of footfall and increased sales.” The shows take place in a marquee in the car park but
everything is geared towards getting the audience back into the centre after the show. Each ticket-holder is given a goody bag voucher to redeem in the Style Zone in the centre of The Mall. As Crayton explains: “It is very rewarding to see 380 people
every hour streaming back into the centre. To help them find in the stores what they have seen on the catwalk we also provide ‘As seen in Bristol Fashion Week’ point of sale tags. We see significant increases in footfall, dwell time and spend.” Novelty exhibitions are another avenue. Leisure consultancy DP
Associates has been working with German model manufacturer Bernd Wolter Design to create dinosaur exhibitions for shopping centres. They have worked extensively in Europe and beyond and now hope to introduce the phenomenon to the UK. The exhibitions, which can be put in for a minimum for four
weeks, usually include an area with interactive dinosaurs, excavation plates where visitors can uncover a skeleton underneath a layer of sand and an area for photo opportunities. Along with this, a trail can be put in with dinosaur models, planters
and signage in traditional or digital formats and children can be given some sort of quest like a quiz which makes them (and their parents) follow the trail around the entire centre. Some shopping centres have reported increased footfall of up to
400 per cent during the exhibition. Anne Basketfield, business development director at DP Associates,
says: “Dinosaurs don’t go out of fashion and are still hugely popular with adults as well as children. Wolter Design already work across Europe and in Turkey, Poland and Russia where the exhibitions are very successful.” She says the concept has already attarcted interest from several UK centres. Sven Neumüller, executive manager at Wolter Design, adds: “The
exhibitions can help to bring people to your centre over others in the area that you may be competing with.” As with most things, commercialisation opportunities increase in
the run up to Christmas. At thecentre:mk the Christmas show includes a ‘Wishlist Lane’ where independent retailers will set up RMUs and sell gifts. The show is free but visitors pay to visit Santa’s grotto, another way to generate income. Other times, such as Freshers Week (usually in late September)
when students go back to university, are ideal. St. David’s in Cardiff recently put on a student lock-in where
visitors could take advantage of student-friendly discounts in participating stores and amuse themselves with live music, a climbing wall and a rodeo-style sheep. “There are 10,000 plus students in Cardiff and there has been a phenomenal amount of interest,” says centre director, Steven Madeley. A similar event at the Manchester Arndale centre involved the
installation of a giant inflatable slide. Getting ahead of the game and putting on events can help
centres in a number of ways, from income generation to increasing footfall, dwell time and spend and with events set to grow in the coming years, embracing them will put many centres in good stead for the future.
Find out more: For more information, please contact the author or visit the website:
www.shopping-centre.co.uk/commercialisation mia.hunt@
jldmedia.com
www.shopping-centre.co.uk October 2010 SHOPPING CENTRE
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