Although Quaker Bridge Mall enjoyed market dominance in teen fashion, the center was determined to attract families to its 25th anniversary celebrations. To do so, it created ‘Saturday Mall Fever’, events designed to be fun for teenagers and nostalgic for their parents. Sales increased 6% during the back-to-school season, and traffic increased nearly 12%.

The enigmatic ocean floor recently came to life for shoppers at Lehigh Valley Mall, thanks to an underwater exhibit on display. The program included coral reef tanks, live predator displays, a cyber sea-diver experience, and touch-tank shows every hour. In addition to high praise from kids, retailers reported a positive increase in sales.

Reviving Main Street: some retailers and developers are seeking to escape urban sprawl, and return to the days when people could gather in a community location, window shop, wave to their neighbors, and generally feel good about the place they’d chosen to live.

Examining the shopping center industry’s response after the 9/11 attacks. Many centers chose to forego Halloween celebrations, while most others proceeded with caution.

Newgate Mall sought to capitalize on the Salt Lake City Olympics; but instead of trying to bring the world to its door, it aimed to attract locals instead. Plush Olympic mascots were available as gifts-with-purchase, contests were held for Olympic pins, the mall’s TVs were tuned-in to the Olympics, and food court merchants gave away Team USA party horns with each purchase.

As part of its grand re-opening, Willow Grove Park aided charity by auctioning tabletop-sized carousel horses that were decorated by celebrities. The horses were replicas of the mall’s new carousel, a key attraction and visual focal point of the renovation. The event saw sales rise 40% over the previous year, food merchants reported an average sales increase of 90%, and more than $26,000 was raised to benefit cancer prevention.

While some were a bit slow in getting on board, these companies and centers were mindful of their presence online from early on. We take a look at their campaigns and strategies.

The Mall at Cribbs Causeway commissioned a £1 million (US$1.4 million) multimedia marketing campaign, to portray itself as the ultimate ‘retail therapy’ destination to its core demographic: women around 35. To build on the success of this campaign, the mall then developed another for the holidays.

To welcome Santa back to its halls, Christiana Mall combined Yuletide cheer, timeless tradition, and technological innovation into a magical event.

Capitalizing on its shoppers’ love of movies, Puente Hills Mall incorporated a “Show Time” theme into its annual sidewalk sale.