Manchester Arndale is celebrating Valentine’s Day with a Love Letter application on its Facebook page, allowing people to share their messages with the wider world, as well as with someone special.

The people counting business is undergoing a period of rapid corporate and technological change. So how is this affecting leading players?

Mobile phone tracking is transforming people counting, but it raises serious privacy issues that could hamper its rollout if not handled with sensitivity.

Gloucester Quays outlet centre has enjoyed it’s highest-ever Christmas and New Year footfall, following the implementation of a repositioning and communications campaign.

The Prime Minister has predicted further austerity and retrenchment for 2012. Yet according to research carried out by ROI Team in late 2011 younger shoppers are challenging that view. Amongst shoppers aged between 16 and 34 almost as many expect to ‘shop more and spend more’ in 2012 as expect to tighten their belts.

For many shopping centres, particularly smaller centres that don’t have the resource to dedicate a full-time member of staff to it, social media can seem like a minefield, but with a little knowhow it can provide endless possibilities 

Shopper activity during December increased by 3 per cent compared to December 2012 driven by retailers’ promotions and heavy discounting. The positive growth was an expected result given the adverse weather conditions of snow throughout the UK during the same month last year. 

Manchester Arndale has beaten its best-ever annual footfall figures, hitting the 40 million mark on Boxing Day.

In the quest to engage with over eight million annual visitors to the Vancouver Quarter, Kings Lynn, The Murdock Group has opted for a new development in out of home advertising.

Pedestrian flows across the UK at the start of the post-Christmas Sales were up year-on-year according to Experian FootFall

Around 2,000 fans and shoppers gathered at The Liberty Centre in Romford in the run up to the X Factor final to see then favourites and eventual winners Little Mix and mentor and judge, Tulisa from N-Dubz.

Over one million people descended upon Regent Street and Oxford Street last weekend for two days of festive shopping and entertainment at the annual Shop West End VIP Weekend 2011.

American Express and Westfield have announced a strategic partnership that sees American Express named as the ‘Preferred Payment Partner’ for Westfield London and Westfield Stratford City.

Hull shoppers looking to pick up a bargain before the New Year sales have been treated to 24 special daily offers revealed via a giant advent calendar.   

UK people counter moves to counter opposition from US politicians and media

Social media is at the heart of the launch of the UK’s largest current retail development, Trinity Leeds, which will open in spring 2013

Following on from the success of the Denim Surgery in June, Manchester Arndale is bringing back the 3D body scanner for the ‘Get the Party Started’ event.

Data capture and e-marketing can be an invaluable tool but for small marketing teams, keeping databases up to date can be a struggle. With competition high and budgets tight, ensuring marketing campaigns are effective is key, but how can you measure success?

Lend Lease has announced that The Events Venue at Bluewater is to be re-named ‘Glow, Bluewater’, from November 1

Westfield has announced Sony Music as an exclusive music partner at Westfield Stratford City and Westfield London.

.... about the marketing of retail destinations in 2012

Last Thursday, 20 October, marked the first Shopping Centre Marketing Seminar for Centre Management, held at the Emirates Stadium.

Shoppertainment has worked with the Strand shopping centre in Bootle, who are hosting a series of free events in a spectacular giant Pumpkin House.

The findings of a new report into male shopping behaviour reveal that 54 per cent of men now shop every couple of days.

Yesterday, 20 October, marked the first Shopping Centre Marketing Seminar for Centre Management, held at the Emirates Stadium.

The day was packed full with marketing insight and advice with presentations from AL Marketing, Brandspace, The Virgo Consultancy, Toolbox Marketing and Madisonsoho, panel debates and a working lunch. A full report will be published in the November issue of Shopping Centre.

More than 11,000 students flocked to Highcross Leicester last Thursday, October 13 for the centre’s second annual Student Lock In event.

Retail and leisure destination marketing agency Madisonsoho has entered into a strategic alliance with online video and social media marketing agency Video To Viral

ShopperTrak Corporation, the world leader in pedestrian counting has bought the privately held RCT Analytics, which provides ShopperTrak technology to shopping centres and individual retailer brands across the UK

Today marks the first Shopping Centre Marketing Seminar for Centre Management - one day of interactive workshops designed by seasoned marketers to empower centre management teams.

Bluewater’s Events Venue is to host Wedding Week, the first ever wedding show by Clarion – the venue’s anchor organiser - between 9-12 February 2012.  

Gloucester Quays has appointed retail and leisure marketing specialists, Fox Kalomaski, to implement a comprehensive repositioning and communications programme.

Newton Mearns’ Avenue shopping centre is hosting The Glasgow Science Centre’s BodyWorks exhibit this week to entertain and educate families.

The City of London’s One New Change, is set to start its week-long first birthday celebrations, including two performances from members of the Jersey Boys cast.

Bridlington’s The Promenades shopping centre has bucked the national trend for dwindling footfall by recording huge year-on-year increases, with August alone seeing 84,000 extra shoppers.

The Rock, in Bury, North Manchester, is set to host a spectacular array of light and fire inspired events on Friday.

Negative publicity over family photos forces U-turn and apology from CSC

Virgo is a creative marketing and design agency creating campaigns that capture the imagination and artwork that grabs your attention.

A row over a family photograph in Capital Shopping Centres’ Braehead centre near Glasgow has sparked a social media firestorm. 

Capital Shopping Centres has teamed up with BWP Group and Reveal magazine for its latest campaign ‘Little Black Dress’.

St David’s shopping centre in Cardiff, owned in a joint partnership by Capital Shopping Centres and Land Securities, welcomed 15,000 students for its lock-in shopping night last week.  

Westfield has agreed a national partnership with Jamie Oliver’s Ministry of Food campaign which teaches people how to cook nutritious food using fresh ingredients. 

MADISONSOHO is a globally award-winning, full service, retail destination marketing agency.

Over 15,000 students descended on Meadowhall on Thursday to attend one of the UK’s biggest ever student lock-in shopping events.

Whiteleys shopping centre in Bayswater, London, is to open a pop-up shop during October half term to celebrate Bagpuss and Clangers – the two legendary children’s television series.

Customer experience analytics specialists, ForeSee, is working with House of Fraser to measure and analyse the customer experience in its stores, on its website, and with its call centre.

Some of the world’s most famous cars were on show at the second Festival of Transport event, held at Hempstead Valley shopping centre in Gillingham.

As thousands of new and returning students pour into Manchester city centre at the start of Freshers’ Week, Manchester Arndale is gearing up to host The Great Student Giveaway.

The first purpose-built business-to-business smartphone app enabling shopping centre management teams and retailers to communicate in real time has been launched by Toolbox Marketing.

Westfield Stratford City has welcomed over one million people through the doors since opening last week.   

Fashion retailer Next choose the City of London’s One New Change as the location for the filming of their new TV ad campaign, due to be aired in the Autumn.  

Retail design specialist Rawls celebrated 21 years last week.

At Shopping Centre's first Marketing Seminar, to be held on October 20th 2011 at The Emirates Stadium in London, six organisations have come together to create a practical day of workshops and presentations designed to empower centre management teams to maximise their marketing performance.

Path Intelligence uses sophisticated mobile technology to analyse and understand the movement of people within retail, transportation and entertainment arenas/venues. This enables centre managers, property owners and asset managers to significantly improve the performance and productivity of their schemes by being able to evaluate visitor behaviour in a number of ways, e.g. visitor numbers, how long they stay, which routes or paths they take, which stores they visit and how often they come back to name but a few. This provides a picture which brings the sophistication of online analytics to the offline world and enables property owners to answer a number of key commercial questions based on robust statistical analysis.

Path Intelligence's FootPath product is installed in numerous sites across the UK, Europe and the US. For more information about the company visit :www.pathintelligence.com

Building brands builds value

Specialists in creating value and ROI, UK-based Toolbox Marketing employ passion, experience, innovation and creativity to drive shopping centre marketing throughout Europe.  Now operational in 15 countries and with creative hubs in Stockholm, Sofia, Budapest, Helsinki and Cambridge, the Toolbox Marketing specialist teams create, direct, implement and evaluate all aspects of shopping centre marketing in both B2B and B2C sectors.

The Ridings shopping centre in Wakefield, is ‘keeping it real’ with a brand new creative campaign.

Festival Place in Hampshire is kicking off a new campaign highlighting its drive to make shopping at the centre a memorable customer experience. 

The Mall has announced an exclusive partnership with celebrity stylist Gok Wan for its Autumn/Winter 2011 fashion promotion.

The London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games (LOCOG) has confirmed that Westfield has become the latest sponsor of London 2012 in a tier three deal.

London Designer Outlet (LDO) - the major retail and leisure element of Quintain’s Wembley City regeneration scheme – has successfully registered the LDO name and design creative as a trademark.

To celebrate extended trading hours, Edgware’s Broadwalk shopping centre has linked up with Costa Coffee to create a Happy Hour between six and seven o'clock with shoppers offered a free cup of coffee.

Retail and leisure marketing specialists Grappa have devised a metric that enables shopping centres and leisure schemes to determine the effectiveness of their Facebook marketing. The metric uses the square footage of the scheme to establish a median baseline for Fan numbers.

Festival Place in Hampshire has launched an iPhone app allowing users to enjoy the ease of having Festival Place ‘in their pocket’.

Eden shopping centre in High Wycombe has developed a digital information portal that invites new enquiries, acting as a sales tool for the scheme’s agents, as well as updating existing tenants.

On October 20th 2011, Shopping Centre is hosting one day of interactive workshops designed by seasoned marketers to empower centre management teams.

To view the seminar programme click here

To book your place click here

To find out more about the Partners click here

Manchester Arndale is set to launch its six-week summer food campaign, which offers hungry shoppers tempting discounts at their favourite places to eat.

The racing calendar, holidays and summer weddings boosted sales across McArthurGlen Designer Outlets in June, sparking a +7 per cent total year-on-year sales rise in June across the Group’s seven UK centres and a +4 per cent uplift in like-for-like sales.  

The Rock in Bury celebrates its first birthday in July and will be delivering a unique high-wire catwalk show to mark the occasion – the first of its kind in the UK.

Last Saturday The Light helped to celebrate Leeds Loves Food, by treating shoppers to a free food and drink fair in its’ Courtyard.

PR, creative design, event and digital marketing agency, Key Lime, has been appointed by The Meadows shopping centre in Chelmsford to increase brand awareness, create fresh new marketing campaigns and drive footfall through targeted event activity.

Repositioning a centre of the size and strength of Meadowhall is a bit like turning round a supertanker. But that’s what British Land and London & Stamford are doing

Eden shopping centre in High Wycombe drew in massive crowds and increased footfall by 12 per cent by staging ‘Dads Are Heroes’ – a superhero family fun day.  

In a rare external collaboration, the Natural History Museum is set to team up with Brighton’s Churchill Square in an awe-inspiring new exhibition

London’s Cardinal Place shopping centre is treating shoppers to two free performances from West End stars.

Turn Key has been appointed by High Wycombe’s Eden shopping centre to roll out a 14-month consumer engagement campaign.

Liverpool One was one of only two centres worldwide to achieve top global honours at the ICSC’s VIVA Awards in Las Vegas yesterday

Customers at Manchester Arndale are being offered the chance to book themselves a free appointment at The Denim Surgery complete with 3D body scanner and personal consultation with a ‘denim doctor’  who will give an individual jean prescription.

Four full purple apple awards were handed out at the annual BCSC marketing awards

Since the recession hit, changes in society have affected how consumers view brands. With a revival of post-war ideals, economy and childlike experiences, people’s lifestyles are changing – but what does that mean for future marketing campaigns?

What do shoppers say? Exclusive research shows the power of the internet in influencing shopper behaviour.

Clarks Village outlet centre is helping to pull cash-rich Chinese tourists into the West after becoming an official tax-free shopping haven.

According to Experian FootFall, in the week beginning 25^th April, footfall increased very marginally week-on-week by +0.1 per cent. It did however drop by -4.0 per cent year-on-year.

Leeds Corn Exchange has launched a design competition to find a creative new logo for the boutique shopping centre, with the lucky winner bagging themselves an Apple iPad.

London’s newest shopping centre, One New Change, is to host a live broadcast of the royal wedding at a pop-up tea room on Friday.

The Rock in Bury is set to launch a first this Easter with a traditional egg hunt with a digital twist.

For the first time in its 15 year history, McArthurGlen is launching a pan-European television campaign.

The UK National Index decreased by -2.3 per cent in March versus 2010, which is so far the biggest monthly year-on-year drop seen this year. 

UK retail sales values were down 1.9 per cent on a total basis from March 2010, when sales had risen 6.6 per cent, boosted by Good Friday and Easter Saturday falling in the March trading period.

Customer traffic is the lifeblood of any retail or shopping centre destination and in the two past decades footfall measurement has not only taken root but has evolved into a major service. Sean Kelly investigates the evolution of customer counting systems

Shoppers stopped in their tracks as McArthurGlen’s Swindon Designer Outlet hosted a horseback fashion show to celebrate its sponsporship of the Badminton Horse Trials

Centre Buzz is a new social media service from Centre Radio which creates an instant live news feed on a centre’s Facebook or Twitter page featuring all the latest developments and offers from retailers.

The Lowry Outlet Mall has reported increased sales and footfall figures for the February half term period.

Three flame haired divas from the multi-award winning show, The Adventures of Priscilla Queen of the Desert, will descend upon the City of London’s One New Change on Wednesday 30^th March to treat shoppers to a lunch hour cameo performance with a difference. 

Smartphone apps are opening up new marketing channels for retail destinations.

With smartphones like the iPhone and the BlackBerry on the rise, apps are fast becoming a precious marketing tool with centres up and down the country jostling to develop the best new software.

Shopping centres are waking up to the power of Facebook and Twitter as communications but they need to be handled with care.

Highcross is introducing a new ‘High Priority’ programme, which rewards shoppers with exclusive offers, VIP events and insider news throughout the year.

For the past three years footfall levels have dropped each year in January, so a +1.8 per cent increase year-on-year is a relatively strong performance. The month-on-month drop at -25.8 per cent is somewhat irrelevant for January as this is expected post Christmas.

The number of digital screens in shopping centres has trebled since 2007 according to new research conducted by POPAI, the not-for-profit trade association for retail marketing.

Less than half of all organisations in the retail sector are using social media platforms to engage with customers, according to KenCall. The study found that only 42 per cent of retail companies were using social media to interact with customers, with 7 per cent engaging in communication via Facebook, and only 32 per cent using Twitter as a customer service tool.

McArthurGlen has reported record trading in its 15 year history for the week starting 26 December with a like-for-like sales increase of 20 per cent and a footfall increase of 6 per cent year-on-year across all seven UK designer outlets.  

The three day Motor Show, exhibited in the centre’s Middleton Hall, opened today and will showcase the world’s first fully hybrid luxury compact car.

Land Securities’ Factory Outlets have beaten record sales in the final week of 2010.

The coldest December in 100 years may have grounded Britain’s transport to a halt but shoppers were still out in force on the high street, according to the BDO High Street Sales Tracker.

Hammerson says footfall was up 40 per cent year-on-year on 27 December

Since the beginnings of customer counting in the early 90’s, technology and accuracy has improved significantly, particularly in the last five to 10 years. Video and thermal imaging methods are tried and tested but each have drawbacks - now an innovative new system that uses the signal from people’s mobile phones to track their path within a shopping centre is on the market with obvious advantages. Could this be the future of customer counting?

The big freeze has hit footfall hard, with national retail footfall down by over 10 per cent compared to this time last year according to Experian

Capital Shopping Centres has appointed Erin Walsh as the new marketing manager at The Harlequin shopping centre in Watford.

Warner Estate, which manages almost £1.5bn of UK property, has appointed Pixel8 to provide design and marketing services for five of its north west shopping centres.

The average marketing budget for UK shopping centres has reduced by 24 per cent between 2008 and 2011, according to Savills research

Global property services group DTZ has warned that it will make a loss this year

The Experian UK FootFall National Index for August 2010 saw a 1.8 per cent rise compared to the same period last year and month-on-month decline of 0.2 per cent compared with July 2010.

UK retail sales values were up 1.0 per cent on a like-for-like basis from August 2009, when sales had fallen 0.1 per cent. On a total basis, sales were up 2.8 per cent against a 2.2 per cent increase in August 2009

Shopping centres across the country are gearing up for a major new initiative to tackle youth unemployment, due to take place during the October half-term holidays

A survey of 2,863 UK consumers, conducted by customer experience researchers Retail Eyes, found that consumers are split almost 50:50 over whether the VAT rise will change their spending habits

Retail sales growth slowed dramatically in July according to the BRC/KPMG Retail Sales Monitor.

Managers at Bournemouth’s Castlepoint shopping park created a day to remember for maintenance staff member James Cotton, who has worked on the retail site for 25 years.

Victoria Quarter in Leeds has become the first shopping centre in the UK to launch its own iPhone app

Westfield London has commissioned a new web portal designed to showcase the retail destination to potential clients.

Victoria Quarter in Leeds has become the first shopping centre in the UK to launch its own iPhone app.

Marketing agencies work together on project-by-project basis

Two leading suppliers to the shopping centre market – C Interactive and Alpine Selection – have announced major rebranding exercises.

With service charges under pressure, shopping centre marketers are being forced to find ever-more creative – and cost effective – means of keeping their centres in front of the key audiences. Social media is rising up the agenda but many still prefer more traditional channels.
Shopping Centre’s own Twitter site (@scnewsfeed) hosts a list of retail destinations that use the microblogging service to alert shoppers to events, promotions and new openings. So far, it seems less than a hundred – or about 10 per cent of the UK market – have active feeds. Rather more use the longer-established Facebook route with their own fan groups of avid shoppers.
But it’s not just the regional megamalls that have spotted Twitter as a relatively cheap communication channel. Smaller schemes like Ayr Central in Ayr are becoming active as well.  According to Michelle Buxton, group managing director at Toolbox Marketing: “Social media is a vital weapon in the shopping centre marketers’ armoury to drive footfall, sales and awareness.” But she warns it is not a ‘magic bullet’. “There is a tendency to see social media as the new big thing, but it should not be used in isolation. It should be used in conjunction with more traditional marketing: promotional events, digital marketing, websites and the like.”
When the Haymarket shopping centre in Leicester set out to crown six ambassadorial ‘Real Shoppers’, it encouraged finalists to get support on their Facebook pages. The eventual winner gathered 3,178 votes. Here Toolbox Marketing combined social media with e-flyers, digivans in the town centre and promotional posters in-centre and clever PR to create a really successful event that raised awareness, increased community involvement and drove footfall and sales.
So what other creative, cost-effective ideas are capturing the imagination? Ipswich’s Tower Ramparts shopping centre, has turned to bus ticket advertising in a bid to increase the number of shoppers passing through its doors. The strategic move, reducing budget allocation in print and broadcast in favour of advertising on the back of bus tickets, has reaped huge dividends for Tower Ramparts and its media agency RB Media. The one-month campaign delivered by UK specialist Ticketmedia was the most successful competition Tower Ramparts has run in the past 10 years, resulting in an impressive increase in footfall and allowing for an unprecedented level of data to be captured for future marketing purposes.
Tower Ramparts was forced to take a fresh look at its marketing in January this year when Ipswich Borough Council closed the multi-storey car park servicing the centre for safety reasons. With 1,100 car parking spaces lost, the immediate impact on the centre needed to be addressed: Tower Ramparts needed to find new footfall streams in as short a time as possible.
With people travelling by car having to find alternative parking locations elsewhere in the town, RB Media investigated public transport options. Almost all the buses in the Ipswich area end their journey just outside the shopping centre, so RB Media looked into bus ticket advertising as a possible solution to the problem.
“We needed to act quickly and effectively to produce a campaign in just three weeks ready to roll out at the start of February,” says Nicki Daldry of RB Media. Ticketmedia designed the creative to put on the back of bus tickets. Simple yet effective, it invited passengers to enter a draw with the possibility of winning a number of prizes including £200 vouchers for Tower Ramparts. All the passenger had to do was fill in their name, contact number and email address, then post their entry form inside the centre. The data would then be added to the centre’s marketing database.
At the end of the month-long campaign, the post box was full to overflowing. Centre manager Mike Sorhaindo says: “We are just delighted with the response we have received. Not only has there been an associated increase in footfall from this campaign but the excellent data capture will be invaluable for future marketing campaigns.”

Bluewater has experienced a record Christmas period, taking its annual footfall for 2010 to an unprecedented 28.1m

Colliers CRE has changed its company name to Colliers International UK. The Colliers CRE Group, including Colliers Robert Barry, Colliers Godfrey Vaughan and Colliers Jackson-Stops, will now all trade as Colliers International.

As construction continues at Westfield Stratford City, a pioneering campaign is under way to involve local talent in the development of the scheme.

Ridley Scott’s latest blockbuster, Robin Hood, is making its way to Nottingham’s Cornerhouse for the UK’s only gala screening.

Cascades shopping centre in Portsmouth are running a nine-month marketing campaign to celebrate its 21st birthday.

Cheshire Oaks Designer Outlet recently turned heads by staging a Guerrilla-style PR stunt at one the UK's biggest sporting events.

The UK’s first ever Shopping Centre Grand Prix took place at Hammerson’s Union Square last weekend (17-18 April 2010). The 61 metre track was located in the atrium area and included sweeping turns, chicanes and hairpins. Using the latest in radio control car technology, the cars reached speeds of up to 35mph.

With service charges under pressure, shopping centre marketers are being forced to find ever-more creative – and cost effective – means of keeping their centres in front of the key audiences. Social media is rising up the agenda but many still prefer more traditional channels.

A new retail concept, which gives the old notion of pop-up stores a makeover, has provided Whiteleys with inspiration for the launch of its own fashion-led revamp.

Capital Shopping Centres celebrated the opening of its new St Andrew’s Way Mall at Eldon Square in Newcastle with a series of fashion shows showcasing both new and established Eldon Square stores.

Manchester’s Triangle shopping centre boosted footfall to new lofty heights with a unique £30,000 publicity campaign.

DTZ has outsourced its five-strong UK and European retail marketing team, headed by Eileen Connolly, to creative agency Madisonsoho.

Bad weather and the rise in VAT combined to give UK retailers their worst January sales performance for 15 years, according to the new Retail Sales Monitor from the British Retail Consortium and KPMG. UK retail sales values fell 0.7 per cent on a like-for-like basis from January 2009, when sales. On a total basis, sales rose 1.2 per cent.

The number of pound shops on the UK’s high streets has almost doubled in the last ten years, reflecting the broadening appeal of budget shopping, according to new research from Experian.

Value fashion retailer Ethel Austin and its homewares brand Au Naturale have announced ambitious expansion plans which will see them open between 50 and 100 new stores this year, on top of 34 openings in 2009.

For up-to-the-minute retail property news follow Shopping Centre on Twitter @scnewsfeed

Land Securities has reported that its two British outlet malls - The galleria in Hatfield and Gunwharf Quays in Portsmouth - both saw a seven per cent increase in sales during the Christmas trading period.

The Mall launched its annual ‘Make Your Mark in Retail’ competition yesterday, having teamed up with Capital Shopping Centres to reach a total 27 shopping centres nationwide.

The first wave of retailers opened today at Glasgow’s St Enoch centre, with several brands making their debut in the city. The much-anticipated opening of Hamleys toy store kicked off proceedings, with a 30,000-sq ft unit marking the brand’s first standalone store outside of London.

Manchester is launching its biggest ever Christmas marketing campaign, valued at over £600,000, to attract shoppers to the city over the festive period. The campaign will emphasize the retail and leisure offer available using poster, press and TV advertising and specially designed maps highlighting the city’s six shopping districts.

Ken Ford, executive director at Capital & Regional, welcomed the move towards more flexible leases, and said that he had no desire to force reluctant retailers to keep trading. “I want volunteers, not conscripts, in the battle for market share,” he said.

MadisonSoho managing partner John White delivered a piece of research arguing that brands – and by extension shopping centres – are going to have to change the way they communicate with their audiences, who will no longer be receptive to the old messages.

A new website is transforming the way Hermes’ shopping centres communicate with their audiences at both consumer and business-to-business levels.

When funding is already stretched to the limit, will centres choose to invest a substantial sum into digital wayfinding? And can they afford not to?

Managers are always on the lookout for effective advertising sites to attract more revenue into their centres. SaniPost, which combines outdoor advertising with a public hygiene service, seems to tick all the right boxes

Lion Yard Shopping Centre held a fashion show on its brand new escalators to celebrate a record deal between Aberdeen Property Investors and fashion chain New Look.

Manchester’s Triangle shopping centre, famed for its regeneration after the IRA bomb in 1996, is holding a summer long exhibition to showcase its history and heritage.

TV presenter Ben Fogle visited White Rose shopping centre in Leeds to launch Coolafone Live, a mobile phone recycling service.

The Chimes shopping centre in Uxbridge has been enticing people with its ‘Big Boy’s Toys’ event, which took place from 20 July until 2 August. The event centered around a dedicated ‘ManZone’, where an array of games and entertainment allowed men of all ages to recreate the joys of childhood.

Retailers want centre owners to provide more flexible leasing and pricing of retail spaces, reports Howard Morgan.

A re-think of trade mark laws brought in last year meant that shopping centres were, for the first time, able to protect their brands. But while it’s now possible to gain trade mark protection, there are still stringent guidelines to which shopping centres must adhere if applications are to be successful, writes Cynthia Johnson.

Even the wealthiest of customers are becoming bargain hunters as a result of the downturn, research commissioned by coupon services provider Valassis has found. The report showed that 31 per cent of consumers of all spending power are more closely scouring the shops for promotional offers than they were a year ago. Over a quarter cited a rise in the cost of living as the reason for them being more cost-conscious, while 29 per cent said it was because food is more expensive and 21 per cent stated it was because they have less money than a year ago.

UK retail sales saw a resurgence in June after more seasonal weather persuaded shoppers to hit the shops and part with their hard earned cash, figures from the British Retail Consortium (BRC) have shown. As a result of the sunnier climes, UK retail sales rose 1.4 per cent on May’s figures and were up 3.2 per cent on the figures for June 2008, when sales were hit by bad weather.

London and Paris are the places to be in Europe, as this is where consumers are parting with the most cash. These cities also have some of the highest prime rents in the world, shows the data taken from Experian and Jones Lang LaSalle’s European Retail Centre Rankings. Italy, Germany and Spain all have two cities each that make the top 10 of the European rankings with Moscow the only city in Central and Eastern Europe to break into the upper echelon.

Boxing star Amir Khan warmed up for his successful world title challenge with a public workout in front of over 1,000 shoppers at The Triangle in Manchester.

Capital Shopping Centres scooped three top industry awards at the International Council of Shopping Centres’ Solal Marketing Awards, held in Vienna.

The Kingdom Shopping Centre in Glenrothes, Scotland became the first UK mall to host a wedding on Saturday July 4.

The advent of the internet bought with it a plethora of new communication and marketing tools that shopping centres can take advantage of.

Strangely, considering most of them are enclosed environments, the advertising industry counts shopping malls as part of the ‘outdoor’ media sector. And, like all advertising, outdoor is undergoing one of its worst-ever slumps. The Outdoor Advertising Association calculates gross spend fell 19.3 per year-on-year in the first quarter of 2009.

With its first standalone store in Ireland recently opening in Dundrum, the US clothing retailer is on an upward curve.

Wayfinding signage is vital to make a shopping centre safe and easy to navigate. Frustrated shoppers, who can't find their way out of the car park or struggle to locate the toilets, may decide not to return. Hence, getting it right is paramount.

During this period of economic belt-tightening, the shopping habits of consumers have become of keen interest to retailers and centre managers. Customer evaluation company Retail Eyes has turned the spotlight on consumer behaviour and the factors that influence people's decision to visit a shopping centre as opposed to frequenting the high street. Retail Eyes conducted its survey, completed by 3,298 respondents, between 1 and 3 August 2008.

In these hard times it is becoming increasingly vital for shopping centres to stretch their marketing budgets to achieve as much coverage as possible for minimum expenditure.

Manchester's Triangle shopping centre has unveiled a 12 per cent year-on-year increase in its quarter one footfall figures, bucking the national trend which is down by 4.4 per cent. Meanwhile, early indicators from the weekly counters are also continuing to show a positive increase in shopper numbers for quarter two.

Six shopping centres across the UK were celebrating this month after being awarded the coveted Purple Apple gong at this year's BCSC Purple Apple Marketing Awards.

As customer counting technology becomes increasingly more advanced and informative, shopping centre managers are realising the benefits in understanding the footfall data of their own retailers and of the town or city in which they are located.

Competition is rife at Christmas time to ensure those all-important shoppers visit your centre over other competition, so getting the decorations right is key. However, there are mixed views from industry experts over what will be popular in 2008.

Low footfall at the beginning of December culminated in last minute panic buying in the final days before Christmas, according to industry analysts.

The Asset Factor, the property outsourcing business backed by Helical Bar and NB Real Estate, has launched a new division advising owners on strategies to maximize their non-rental income. The company has recruited Jones Lang LaSalle’s head of shopping centre marketing and commercialisation Bryony Parkin to head the new division, which will be called Asset Space.

The specialist retail agency Leslie Furness has been bought by King Sturge. All six of its directors will become partners at King Sturge as the firm looks to beef up its retail representation, and all 11 employees have been offered posts at the new firm.

Pedestrian traffic across the UK this Christmas was down 3 per cent year-on-year, according to new data from Experian’s FootFall division.

As you read this, the Christmas frenzy will be reaching a climax but, increasingly, thoughts will be turning to dealing with the challenge of 2008. According to Deloitte, 85 per cent of UK retailers believe that the economy in 2008 will deteriorate or stay the same.Pressure on service charges will be severe, given the significant rent hikes experienced by many tenants in 2007.

As one of the UK's most well-known shopping centre developers with more than 16 years' experience in the property industry and a portfolio that has a total end value in excess of £2.5bn, Modus is going from strength to strength.

While wayfinding signs are probably the most familiar forms of signage in shopping centres, the industry seems to be evolving towards digital technology and other media. Indeed while wayfinding is, and always will be, vital to shoppers, communicating the right messages to the consumer, such as promoting in-store offers or upcoming events, is also becoming increasingly important.

Britain is beginning to see a drop off in interest in consumer brands and a backlash against those jumping on the green bandwagon. And as the gap between the very richest and the poorest continues to widen and polarise society, it is becoming harder to predict what is going to happen. But one thing is for sure: we are terrified of teenagers and we want to be safe and happy. Good architecture could help.