Conducting Special Events in Malls

Walters, Nancy R., Public Relations Journal

Shopping malls offer public relations practitioners high-visibility venues to promote clients and generate positive publicity. Mails are not the place for every event, but when there is a win-win union between mall and sponsor marketing goals, the results can be spectacular.

The key to conducting shopping mall events is understanding how to maximize the opportunities malls offer, what works in malls and what doesn't, how malls operate, what kind of events they welcome and those they shun.

There are more than 30,000 shopping malls in the United States and Canada. They include regional malls, strip centers, convenience centers, downtown retad districts, discount centers, multiuse properties and other properties. The major trade association is the International Council of Shopping Centers, located in New York.

Malls allow a variety of activities. Public relations firms can use malls to premiere, demonstrate, give out samples and conduct product tests, gather research, stage events, schedule celebrity and spokesperson appearances, sponsor seminars, hold contests and sporting events, raise money for charities, stage press conferences and more.

It's important to note that within each city, each mall offers a unique consumer profile and market position.

Examples of malls with large, identifiable target groups: very-high-income shoppers at Biltmore Fashion Park, Phoenix, and South Coast Plaza, Orange County, California; fashionoriented black consumers at Fox Hills Mall, Los Angeles, and Greenbriar Mall, Atlanta; daytime career audience at Georgetown Park, Washington, D.C. and South Street Seaport in Manhattan; upscale family market at Cherry Hill Mall, Philadelphia, and Woodfield, Chicago. Some of these malls and others, like North County Fair in San Diego County and Altamonte Sprin in Orlando, deliver it all-a widely diverse market base that provides good locations for a …

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Publication information: Article title: Conducting Special Events in Malls. Contributors: Walters, Nancy R. - Author. Journal title: Public Relations Journal. Volume: 45. Issue: 11 Publication date: November 1989. Page number: 31+. © 1989 Public Relations Society of America. COPYRIGHT 1989 Gale Group.

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