One of the ways shopping centres, increasingly, tick all the boxes is by holding themed events. Throughout April, Lakeside in Thurrock held an Italian Festival, which not only helped drive footfall and boost retailers' sales, but also provided a platform for opportunities in commercialisation.

Il Festival Italiano allowed shoppers to experience the tastes, sounds and style of Italian culture, with each week of the month-long event dedicated to a different aspect of Italian life - from arts and crafts targeted at families, to four days of fashion, and a week dedicated to Italian cooking starring celebrity chef Aldo Zilli.

David Compton, account manager at Brandspace, which rents out Lakeside's mall space to companies wishing to promote their products or services, says the event attracted the likes of Fiat, Nescafe, and Ferarri bringing in a lot of non-core revenue.

"We had Fiat in for the month, Nescafe were in doing coffee sampling and Ferarri came in as well," says Compton. "It was nice to have a theme. Lakeside puts in a lot of marketing support so it is a nice way to approach companies that might not previously have thought about promoting in a shopping centre. For example, Ferarri hadn't done it before and now they are thinking about coming back again."

Compton believes that working with the marketing department and creating a theme, such as the Italian Festival, is great for attracting local businesses.

"We have done a Home Show before where we get conservatory companies, gardening companies and garden furniture and so on and we are looking at the possibilities of travel shows and health and beauty shows," he says. "The difficulty we do have is if you are trying to get in the big brands, they tend to work to their own agendas. For example L'Oreal will have a roadshow planned six months in advance and will not be flexible in changing it. We can't really call a company like that and say what is going on but it does work with local businesses."

At the newly-extended Golden Square in Warrington marketing manager Ian Cox and commercialisation manager Laurie Barton-Wright are also planning to combine forces by interlinking their marketing campaigns with revenue generating opportunities. Commercialisation will be key, for example, in their fashion show.

Stephen Brooks, of Concessions-online agrees that linking promotions to a centre's marketing campaign is a good way forward. "Shopping centres have become modern day temples and as in all temples people want to see theatre and drama," he says. "Fashion shows, home events and health/lifestyle events are always going to be things that visitors to centres are going to want to see. Tagging on promotions to these events is a good way of bringing new companies around to the idea of using shopping centres.

"It's something we have been involved in on the periphery but not done much of yet. For the large centres it's not a problem because they have big areas, but small local shopping centres may be need to think about it on a smaller scale."

SpaceandPeople's Nick Hill adds that the most attractive pull for brands is a centre with a high footfall and their target demographic. "It's about having as much research as possible," says Hill. "They will want to know who it will hit and what we are beginning to see is a maturity of the marketplace. We need to provide good quantatitive research so we can pass that onto the relevant promoter."

And he says that brands are now moving on from looking solely at the band A malls and moving onto bands B and C.

But he stresses how important it is that the promotion is also right for the centre. He points to a Durex campaign that is running at the moment, which for many family-oriented shopping centres is not appropriate to be carried out on their malls. "There will always be promoters that want to push the barrier," he says.

Clare Andrew, director at Shoppertainment, part of the Modus Group, agrees that the promotion has to suit the centre's demographic. "You can have high quality promotions in Cheshire, such as chef demonstrations, that wouldn't work in a more family orientated centre," she explains. "You have to ensure you offer the right demographic and the right mix to the right shopper."

Brooks also reckons that getting the right demographic is more important than footfall figures. "Whether there are 50,000 or 500,000 people going through a centre, if you have two people on the stand, then those two people can only talk to as many people as they can talk to in an eight hour period, so more and more people are looking at the demographic, the retail mix and the dwelltime."

And he says agencies work very closely with the centre management teams to ensure the centres match the right type of client and vice versa. For example a green energy provider would be best promoting in areas that have high recycling levels.

As for trends in the marketplace, Hill points out that the most popular promotions in shopping malls are those where companies give something away for nothing. Last summer, for example, Ribena Light gave shoppers samples to try.

He says: "We just did a promotion for Pilot Pens where you get a free pen, and it works for anything, even something as unappealing as shoe freshener. One company was giving away deodorised insoles and it was like vultures because people were being given something for nothing.

"If you look at promotions, you have your local car company and photographic studio but they are not creating an experience or pulling in the visitor. We are starting to see people combining the two, such as Phones 4 U which is giving shoppers a chance to win the latest Sony phone or Nokia. That is driving people to their stores but you still get a chance to win something."

Hill believes promoters are getting much more astute about the type of activity they now run. "It used to be a pop-up stand but now they have something that is more interactive, more engaging and gives people a chance to win something and we are beginning to see that more often," he adds.

Attracting male shoppers is often harder for firms such as Nivea, but a recent promotion on the mall gave shoppers across 20 different shopping centres the chance to try the product but also be in with a chance to win a £35,000 Hummer.

"My view on the UK market is that we don't have oodles of space so agencies are more creative to make people stop and want to get a sample," says Hill. "What I am seeing as a trend is where we try to engage the public and give them an experience."

At Buchanan Galleries in Glasgow, a conservatory company recently did away with the usual pop-up stand idea and constructed a £25,000 conservatory in the mall. They invited people to bring in a photo of their house so they could show them what a conservatory would look like built on; while they also teamed up with the scheme's tenants who provided the furniture to put in the conservatory. "You wouldn't expect to see that in a shopping centre but they are doing phenomenally well," says Hill. "They have a more relaxed effect where people come to them and the sales figures are phenomenal."

Brooks says there are currently a lot of companies active in the home improvement industry, while energy providers are also having a resurgence at the moment. "Credit card companies are still around and there are a lot of gift agencies as well," he says.

Promotion Space's Guy Soar says he is seeing a lot of activity from Broadband companies such as Sky, which has an objective to get into as many centres as possible to take advantage of the available footfall levels.

"We are starting to see the extension of that model into more professional model groupings," says Soar. "We are seeing bigger and bigger brands bypassing traditional methods and going out to meet their customers instead. More and more brands are beginning to realise that this channel is emerging."

Andrew also backs up Hill's view that promotions are steering away from the old pop-up boards and instead becoming far more creative. "You have to think more about how your promotion works, what you are promoting and what you are putting on display. It has to be eye catching and has to be something that attracts the shopper. You have to be a lot more chic about it and know your shopper," she says. "If people are stopped every five minutes they will be put off. If you think 'why would I stop and chat to you?' that's the best way to do it I would say.

"The best promotions are those that can offer the whole experience for the whole family that hit every angle and make the shoppers and the promoters happy."

Bringing something a little extra to the mall

Retail merchandising units are a hugely popular way for shopping centres to add a bit more colour and variety to their schemes while also generating mall revenue - often making them the first choice for landlords.

According to Stephen Brooks of Blueprint Projects - sister company of Concessions-online - RMUs can very quickly bring some theatre and activity to an area that might be poorly lit, or an area of the mall that nobody knows what to do with.

"A well-designed RMU will raise the standard of the type of traders that want to use your shopping centre and raise the profile of other users as well," he says. "It lends credibility to the products that come in because gone are the days of trestle tables. By using effective lighting and power and putting plasma screens into them it becomes a mall shop rather than somebody that is trying to sell some wares."

CEO of Promotion Space Steve Hughes says they are increasingly seeing businesses move from promotional areas into RMUs. "That gives the venue a more professional, longer-term and more recurring revenue model as they are not just in for a weekend," says Hughes. "That means there is huge growth in the RMU business."

Promotion Space's Guy Soar says new and cutting-edge products and services are increasingly being sold from RMUs such as canvas art and acrylic art. While Brooks also insists it is sound business ideas, such as iPod accessories, that will ensure the success of an RMU trader.

He says: "There are companies we are working with that are looking at selling prescription glasses from an RMU but in a different model to walking into Specsavers, for instance. Another company is looking to sell hair extensions. We are working with international brand Xerox to put in a print shop. Companies want to put in long-term concessions. We have already developed the ideas for the stands."

Competition winner at West Quay

One lucky shopper at West Quay in Southampton recently won an all-inclusive seven-day holiday to the Dead Sea, courtesy of Temsa Sales - a specialist in Dead Sea products.

The competition was run across 24 shopping centres in the UK and Ireland over a seven week period and enabled the company to build up a large database of customers.

Tzili Golan of Temsa Sales says: "Customers had to fill in a card with their details in order to enter and didn't have to purchase anything. It gave us a really large database. Obviously customers had the option on the terms and conditions to refuse to receive further information from us in the future but the database was really useful for us."

Contacts

Brandspace: 020 7227 3700

Golden Square: 01925 655053

Concessions-online: 01787 476070

SpaceandPeople: 0705 900 3144

Shoppertainment: 0161 833 0955

Promotion Space: http://www.promotion-space.com

Temsa Sales: 020 8275 1844

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