The Christmas experience
Published: 23 February, 2011
With more and more shopping centres turning to experiential activities to make an impact, Christmas is a great time to try out new and exciting ideas.
From shows and grottos showcasing the latest technology, to animated decorations, live reindeer and giant walk-in snowglobes, shopping centres really are upping the ante.
Grottos are a long-standing Christmas tradition and for many they have become tired and stale but they are still a favourite for families and if done right they can have people clamouring to visit.
James Glancy Design describes its products, designed by former theatre and opera designer Paul Dart, as the most modernist in the industry.
This forward-thinking approach spurred the company on to create inflatable grottos that look fresh and interesting whilst helping centres to lower their costs.
“Two seasons ago we designed an inflatable snowman for Carnaby Street and later for Merry Hill,” says managing director James Glancy. “We went on to look at other inflatable ideas from reindeer to ginger-bread men and bears.
“We used to do steel-framed grottos but the cost is extortionate and they all look the same, that’s when we flirted with the idea of inflatable grottos.”
Last year the Whitgift shopping centre in Croydon commissioned an inflatable igloo themed grotto and they’ve had nothing but positive comments.
“It’s very different from a pile of moulded plastic or a shed number,” says Glancy. “Instead it’s clean and modern and the igloo ticked all the right boxes because it’s perceived to be traditional and it has that squishy, bouncy castle element that children love.”
James Glancy Design also put in inflatable igloos at the Eastgate centre in Gloucester and in an empty unit at the Walnuts shopping centre in Orpington.
Centres can customise the interior according to their preferences. Eastgate put in a white carpet which added an extra level to the theme, the Walnuts installed Christmas trees that had been saved from previous years and the Whitgift chose to put in reindeer, also setting up uplighters either side of Santa’s bench adding a glowing effect.
“The igloo comes in a number of sizes and can be fitted into a unit with fairly low ceilings,” explains Glancy. “You just plug it in and go, and it packs away into a small box, saving on installation costs.”
LDJ Design & Display saw a huge rise in grottos in 2010 with the emergence of new technologies such as 3D theatre. The company forecasts a shift into the technological advances in 3 and 4D experiences, as the expectations of family units increase.
For instance Highcross in Leicester opted for a traditional grotto design, supplied by LDJ.
“We didn’t have a grotto when Highcross first opened in 2008 but we’re a regional shopping centre and after doing market research we wanted to focus on attracting families – the grotto was part of this draw,” says Michael Holland, the centre’s marketing controller.
The grotto – the only permanent one in the city over the Christmas period – was open between November 7 and Christmas Eve and welcomed 4,710 visitors, 10 per cent more than in 2009, each paying £4.50 to meet Santa.
The grotto was set up in two vacant units. “Mall space is at a premium over the Christmas period so enlivening an empty unit was an added benefit,” explains Holland.
To make it as magical as possible, centre management even chose a Father Christmas impersonator with a real beard for added authenticity.
“In 2009 we had a reindeer theme but we updated the creative this year and changed it to penguins,” explains Holland. “It was really successful – we had very good feedback from customers and we’re definitely going to continue to do it in the future.”
Giant snowglobes, on the market since 2008, are another option and are becoming more and more popular.
JBL Leisure patented a giant walk-in snowglobe, supplied by partners Photographic Synergy, in which up to six people can have their photograph taken by a professional photographer.
The photos can be bought in a presentation folder and distributed to friends and family as a Christmas card.
The global phenomenon, which appeared on Dragon’s Den last year, has been installed in 30 UK shopping centres including Bluewater, thecentre:mk and The Liberty shopping centre in Romford as well as Hyde Park’s Winter Wonderland, Gatwick Airport, Harrods and Topshop on London’s Oxford Street.
Fifteen shopping centres in the UK and Ireland have pre-booked for Christmas 2011 and the company has also been commissioned to manufacturer the largest snowglobe in Europe, a 70 ft version holding 40-50 people at a time, in Lisbon, Portugal.
Alistair Heelas is managing director at JBL Leisure. “The idea was developed from a handheld snowglobe and the design is based on a twin-lock diving chamber,” he explains. “They’re a simple design and we found that we could manufacturer good quality ones in the UK at a reasonable cost.”
For visitors, the snowglobe is cheaper than most grottos at £8 for a group of six and can help to increase dwell times because, with a 360 degree view, people stop and look.
“Predominantly shopping centres have grottos for Christmas but they only appeal to children aged between 2-8 years old,” he says. “It’s rather stale and it’s expensive having to employ a Father Christmas and rely on the actor. They don’t really make money anymore and they take up lots of space.
“The snowglobes have been very successful and the feedback has been immense – everyone loves them.”
The standard size – 3.75m base and 4m height – is £10,000 and can be erected by two people in just one hour.
Other sizes include a mini version for space saving – which still holds six people but is a third smaller than the standard size – and autoglobe, used by car manufacturers for promotions.
Highcross had a similar giant bauble in the centre for the four days leading up to Christmas.
“The bauble was really successful,” says Holland. “It was in a main mall location so people were continuously getting in and trying it out. It brought a seasonal sense of entertainment to the mall.”
MetroCentre in Gateshead trialled several new experiential activities last year, moving away from the animated displays it used to have at Christmas time.
“It used to take hours to write the music and sync everything,” says the centre’s marketing manager Karen Carr. “In the end we found that the kids wanted more so last year we had an interactive play area instead and it proved really popular.”
The children’s disco booth had a juke box with a choice of 10 songs that children could sing and dance to.
Along with traditional elements like Santa’s grotto, the centre also had a reindeer installation, the height of two houses, which Carr describes as a “real wow feature” and baubles painted to look like gnomes with holes that visitors could put their arms and head through.
And they must be doing something right because Carr says they had more compliments than any other year.
Wowing your customers before they even set foot in the mall can be great for business. While an investment, MK Illumination’s PIXIP Tree - a vast Christmas tree shaped LED screen programmed to show shapes, impressions and words – can really wow visitors and according to managing director Paul Dove they are gaining in popularity.
With more than 5000 LED pixels, the PIXIP tree creates a highly visible show both day and night and the creative possibilities are endless.
The scale means that they are often most appropriate for outside use, catching potential shoppers’ eyes and as well as being a festive decoration they can double up as an advertising tool, bringing in extra revenue.
Linking promotions to the festive season is another option, which can help to drive spend while also acting as an activity for customers.
Highcross ran a ‘Spot the Hitchhiking Elf’ campaign in conjunction with local radio station Leicester Sound. Each weekday an elf would stand by one of the city’s roads holding a billboard advertising the centre. People who spotted him were instructed to text in to the radio station and every Sunday the winners got to ‘Breakfast with Santa’ at the centre.
“It worked really well – it meant that the grotto was fully booked on the first day and the centre got plenty of radio play,” says Holland.
Global sales promotion consultancy, The Continuity Company advocates a joined-up approach.
“As we approach Christmas 2011 many of us will be feeling the pinch financially so this is the time when retailers need to give their customers a bit of light relief and put some entertainment back into shopping,” says David Ringer, general manager at TCC UK & Ireland.
“Shopping centres will go part of the way with experiential activities to tempt customers in, but retailers inside the malls need those shoppers to be persuaded to go into the stores and spend some money.”
Ringer advises malls to link promotions to their retailers to deliver sales on top of the footfall provided by Christmas themed activities.
“Our experience shows that these promotions provide a fantastic opportunity for retailers to build loyalty, increase basket spend and encourage repeat purchase,” he says.
TCC worked with Dream Mall, one of Taiwan’s biggest shopping centres, to create a Paddington Bear promotion which linked the retailers together and drove sales.
There was plentiful branding across the mall and in the stores, life-sized Paddington Bears, Paddington meet & greets and a whole host of family experiential events. On top of this customers could collect points linked to spend to be redeemed for Paddington Bear soft toys.
“The promotion was a huge success with an 18 per cent increase in turnover during the course of the promotion and a 1.1 per cent growth in basket spend,” says Ringer. “The sales increase came from much greater conversion rates, a stretch in spend, an increase in dwell time and giving shoppers a compelling reason to spend in the mall instead of the high street.
“Customers are not motivated or stimulated by huge discounts and sales prices. We would encourage shopping centres not to develop their Christmas grottos and animations in isolation but to look at creative ways of extending the fun into the individual stores inside the centre to drive revenue and build loyalty. That way customer footfall is more likely to stay high into the New Year.”
There is a whole spectrum of imaginative concepts and ideas available on the market to enthral Christmas shoppers, leaving little excuse for boring displays or a lack of experiential activities.
“I can’t believe they still use sheds for grottos and those revolting nodding gnomes in shopping centres,” says Glancy. “They’re dreadful and there’s just no excuse. “We’re surrounded with great design. Why not use it?”
