SHOPPING centre landlords need to be aware of both the opportunities and the challenges associated with creating events and promotional activities at their malls, according to a panel of real estate experts.
Discussing the ways in which destinations can be leveraged to attract new customers, Nhood international tenant representation director Ganna Koryagina said that activations such as the Green Walk sustainability-focused catwalk it ran at a number of its schemes, had pushed footfall up and attracted the hard-to-entice Gen Z shopper.
Roxana Baias of NEPI Rockcastle (left); Hammerson’s Alex Hill, Nhood’s Ganna Koryagina and Newmark’s Simon Carson as a stage
“One of the things we have been trying to do is come up with initiatives that provide and authentic experience and bring in micro-communities of people,” she said. “And our data shows that these events encourage people to come back more regularly.”
Roxana Baias, group head of marketing at NEPI Rockcastle, added that the company had used its Romanian malls as a platform for music events, attracting sponsorship from brands such as Procter & Gamble across a series of summer events. It expects to roll out the programme to more malls in the CEE next year.
However, Alex Hill, Hammerson’s leasing manager, restaurants and leisure, also warned that shopping centres needed to ensure that they could cope with large influxes of people for celebrity-led events such as one it held with rapper Dizzee Rascal.
“As centre managers we need to learn about managing crowds and enhancing the customer experience,” he said.
