trouble viewing? please click here.

connecting shopping center professionals

industry headlines

'Relief' as shopping centres survive: UK shopping center owner Liberty International sees the retail economy

stabilize (The Independent, UK)

A US Government Rescue for Commercial Real Estate? : Could a commercial real estate bailout be next? (Fox

Business, US)

Malls see surge in kiosk interest: Entrepreneurs are taking advantage of lower rental rates with creative kiosk

concepts. (AZCentral, US)

The Information Architecture of Social Experience Design: Thinking of launching a social media experience for your

mall? Read this first. (ASIS&T)

Slight rise in retail spending in July: New Zealand the newest of many countries where retail is picking up again.

(The National Business Review, NZ)

Click through for stories on Centro's CEO, the success of Staycations, Augmented Reality in advertising, and more.

this week's news

top

DDR Shoots for the Stars

Developers Diversified Realty (DDR) is looking to the stars for a great new initiative.

The American company has launched Stars Over DDR to celebrate the International Year of Astronomy. 24 of its malls

across the U.S. (in both large and small markets) are setting time aside this summer and fall to educate shoppers about

the stars and to celebrate the spirit of exploration.

Each of the malls will be holding the World at Night photography exhibition. With photos of the night sky from landmarks around the world, taken

by the best international night photographers, the show is sure to delight shoppers and excite their imaginations. Many of the shopping centers will

also be offering complementary events and promotions, at their own discretion.

Comment on this story.

Anyone For Some Hoops?

The Centre: MK has always ensured that its center court, Middleton Hall, has been put to good use. It’s hosted Britian’s largest indoor beach and plenty of shows, events and adventures.

But next year looks to be even more exciting. The shopping center will host the MK Lions, a team competing in the

British Basketball League, for nine home games. It will serve as a temporary home for the team as it awaits the

completion of Arena MK.

Not many shopping centers can claim their own professional basketball teams, but you never know what can happen when you start looking for

creative opportunities for your space.

Comment on this story.

Happy Birthday to Coquitlam Centre Canadian shopping center Coquitlam Centre turns 30 this month. To celebrate, it’s sending shoppers home with some

great birthday gifts.

The shopping center’s Style Squad has made itself over into the Birthday Squad, and for 30 days in August it’s giving out 30 gifts a day. The gifts are sponsored by mall retailers, and they include reusable bags, Coquitlam Centre compacts

and limited edition t-shirts, accessories, cupcakes, and sets of 30 photo prints.

Shoppers can also enter to win a small prize by taking the “Big 3-0″ quiz, which asks them to answer 30 questions about Coquitlam Centre’s last 30 years in the community. Many of the questions center around current and previous marketing

campaigns, which seems like a fantastic way to check on the reach and memorability of the campaigns.

Comment on this story.

Keep Them Full and Happy

Here’s a quick and easy idea to make shoppers stick around and spend a bit longer. Pacific Fair Shopping Centre is

offering hungry shoppers full lunches for just $5.

Working with its eateries, Pacific Fair has put together a flier of coupons for $5 lunches. The lunches run the gastronomic

gamut – a dedicated shopper could try out sushi, pies, wraps and hot dogs and still have a few more choices – and they

include some tasty food, a drink and occasionally dessert.

A deal like this would be enough to get this shopper to stay for lunch… and maybe some afternoon shopping.

Comment on this story.

Reader Profile: Susan Patterson

Each week, we bring you a brief profile on one of our fantastic readers. Know someone we should be writing about? Let

us know.

Name: Susan Patterson

Title: Marketing Manager

Property: Swansea Mall

Location: Swansea, Massachusetts, USA

How long have you been at this property? 20 years (3 ½ years as marketing manager and, before that, 16 ½ years as marketing assistant).

How many years of experience do you have in the shopping centre industry? 25 years.

How big a role does technology play in your marketing strategy?

It is a very important tactic to our marketing strategy. Swansea Mall is managed by General Growth Properties, which as a company will burst onto

social media sites in the very near future.

Do you have a lot of direct and personalized interaction with your shoppers that is facilitated by technology? Yes we do. The Club is our email-based loyalty program in which members receive a monthly email with preferred offers and coupons, information

on sales and events as well as a chance to win a $100 shopping spree each month. The Club is free to join and shoppers can sign up at the mall or on our website, at www.VisitSwanseaMall.com.

Which technology tools do you use most often? Our mall website is a very popular and useful tool for all of our retailers. Since offers can be added at anytime, I am always getting calls to add an event or sale to the website. This is a free service that we offer our retailers and they love it!

What has been the most successful technology-based marketing program that you have implemented over the past year? We recently wrapped up a very successful promotion where members of The Club who printed and brought in a personalized email blast received a

free $10 mall gift card. Shoppers were pleasantly surprised by this valuable free gift. Programs like this help to keep our frequent shoppers loyal and

also help to get the word out to new potential customers.

What is your primary goal this year? As always, it is to drive traffic to the mall so our many retailers can have successful sales and promotions.

What is your biggest challenge this year? In this difficult economic climate, we must all do more with less. With shrinking budgets and staff we have to give 110 percent and work together as

a team to achieve our goals.

Can you offer one tip to other mall-marketing professionals? I have found that several retailers, who in the past have not participated in mall marketing programs, are now looking for as much support as they can

get. It’s a great idea to get out and talk to the store managers or have a meeting to get more retailers involved in mall-wide promotions.

Thanks Susan!

Comment on this story.

Insider’s Tip of the Week: Vic Dodier

Each week, we feature tips from industry insiders. Have a tip to share with our readers? Let us know.

This week’s tip comes to us from Vic Dodier, President of Dodier & Company:

“Every marketing professional knows that during an economic downturn, advertising and promotions are critical for

maintaining a competitive presence. Yet marketing is one of the first areas to be cut. Consider tracking your marketing

programs to show ownership and management how marketing supports their efforts. Tracking reports provide hard

evidence of increased traffic and sales, which in turn can help you keep your marketing budget intact.

Follow these steps to track your programs:

1. Use incentive-based programs for trackability

At Dodier & Company, we produce seasonal direct-mail brochures that feature retailer incentives. When soliciting

participation from the retailers, be sure to remind them to keep all redeemed coupons for follow-up surveys.

2. Conduct merchant surveys

At the end of each marketing program, distribute survey forms to all participating merchants. Survey questions can cover such topics as coupon

redemptions, targeted mailing areas, brochure format, and traffic and sales increases as a result of the program. In addition to helping compile results for ownership, the surveys also provide valuable feedback for future programs.

3. Compile your report

Once all the survey responses are in, compile the findings into a report. This would include an overview of the program, percentage of participants, number of coupon redemptions, the rate of return and a spreadsheet with individual merchant responses."

Want to know more about Dodier & Company’s retailer incentive marketing programs?

E-mail Vic or visit Dodier & Company online at www.Dodier.com.

viral marketing

top

Microsoft Makes a Splash

Viral Marketing: Also known as Word of Mouth Advertising. Any strategy that encourages individuals to pass on a

marketing message to others, thus creating the potential for exponential growth in the message's exposure and influence.

Just like viruses, such strategies take advantage of rapid multiplication to explode the message to thousands, even to millions.

This week’s viral ad is pretty cool. In it, a gentleman tests out a very unique (and rather large) water slide with great success.

But is the ad itself a success? Certainly by the numbers it is – over 1.6 million views in a bit over a week. But it took several days before viewers

were told who, exactly, the film is an ad for. As it turns out, it’s an ad for Microsoft’s project planning software, but there’s no obvious brand

connection there. So did Microsoft really reach all 1.6 million viewers? The ad is targeted to the German market, but the company probably could

have leveraged a few more sales by supporting more languages on the associated website, too.

On the other hand, it is a cool video, and its picked up a lot of attention and blog coverage. So maybe it’s doing what it needs to do. Check it out

here.

cause marketing

top

Looking on the Bright Side

Cause Marketing: Cause Marketing is the art of combining your commercial brand with a non-profit issue. Cause marketing campaigns have years of history and range from relatively superficial tactical partnerships, to long-term,

strategic alliances that penetrate deeply into business and nonprofit organizations.

Golden Square has committed to helping local youth help others.

The UK shopping center is supporting Bright Side, an initiative that rewards youngsters for their time spent volunteering

and helping those in need. The initiative is organized by Warrington Youth Volunteering. Youths aged 16-25 can sign

up and volunteer their time for a huge variety of good causes, and receive free treats from the shopping center, like meals, makeovers and discounts.

Encouraging volunteerism in young people helps create lifelong volunteers. What has your mall done to support volunteering? Let us know in the

comments!

Comment on this story.