Bringing the Brand Experience to the Holidays

We just have to think about how to share our brand and our capabilities in different ways. And also, what makes our brand stand out from our competitors?

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However we try to prove that, we must do it in a way that is both actually true and relevant to our audience.

Trips to the mall have changed significantly since the online shopping has dominated the retail world. Driving visitors to shop at the store requires an additional experience and no other experience drives more visitors to the mall than visiting Old Saint Nick. A typical mall Santa will see over 10,000 children in the six-week work period that is the Santa Holiday Season. A very busy mall could have as many as 20,000 kids visiting Santa. 

Malls are reinventing the holiday experience and using brand activation to provide guests with more hands-on engagement.

Brand activation is any activity – whether it’s an event, campaign, or other experience – that gives your company the ability to directly interact with a target audience. When done well, brand activations turn your prospects into brand advocates, taking potential customers through the funnel and transforming them into believers.

 

Mattel & GGP malls bring you the holidays with Santa’s Toy Factory

This interactive consumer activation allowed guests to interact with some of their favorite Mattel toys before getting a photo with Santa.  This experience launched in four cities across the US in GGP centers and delighted guests young and old.

As guests arrive they are welcomed into Santa’s toy factory and receive a hard hat to become one of Santa’s Helpers.  They are invited to help test the latest Mattel toys for Santa which include some of Mattel’s most popular toy brands

• The Hot Wheels^® Super Ultimate Garage
• The Thomas & Friends^TM Superstation
• Barbie^®’s Dream House

In addition to toy testing, kids will get to help Santa design, build and paint toys using touchscreens to complete their creations.  Guests have the option to email their creations at each digital station

Guests are able to create custom patterns for the latest Barbie^® fashions at the Barbie^® Design Studio

Choose and build a Thomas & Friends^TM train at the Build Station

At the Hot Wheels® station, guests are able to choose a car and give it a custom paint job

After exploring the latest Mattel toys the factory guests will get to meet and get a photo with Santa.

 

Today’s Santa Experience is More Than Just Sitting on Santa’s Lap

Santa’s Flight Academy is a fully interactive holiday experience. In addition to the traditional meeting with Santa Claus, guests have the opportunity to get up close to and interact with Santa’s sleigh’s navigation, power, engine testing, and even try on a virtual flight suit—proper attire to accompany Santa on this 21st-century holiday trip!

To rediscover the magic and tradition of the holiday season, Taubman a premier mall developer will debut Santa’s Flight Academy, a one-of-a-kind, immersive holiday experience, at 12 shopping centers throughout the United States. The Academy combines a giant re-imagination of the North Pole with state-of-the-art technology to enable children to become a member of Santa’s flight crew. Partnering with an elf, each child will help ready Santa’s sleigh so he can deliver presents to children around the world.

Santa’s Flight Academy allows children to “Elf” themselves and becomes a cadet in Santa’s crew. Upon entering Santa’s Flight Academy, each cadet is presented his or her official flight crew badge and immediately recognized by name. Santa’s helpers guide children through the experience of being fitted for a virtual flight suit, helping to inspect and power Santa’s sleigh before takeoff, and other interactive tasks to ensure every present is carefully delivered.

At the end of the adventure, each child steps inside a 22-foot-tall sleigh for an enchanted snowfall dance party before meeting Santa. Children also receive a special gift from Santa to personally thank them for heroically saving the day.

The indoor/outdoor holiday experience at 7 Westfield malls engages shoppers by getting them involved. Interactive elements include a station where kids can design and send their own holiday e-cards, a 70-inch interactive touch screen and more.

Don’t worry – kids still got to sit on Santa’s lap at the end!

Focus on sensory branding to appeal to your customers' senses

Highly immersive holiday experiences that stimulate shopper action, engagement, interest, and mall visits during the busiest shopping season of the year.

Retail displays focus on sensory branding to appeal to your customers' senses. Pleasing colors, subtle holiday sounds, and a fresh pine smell are just some of the details that make magical holiday experiences.

Taubman Centers has also created a distinctive and memorable yuletide décor program for 16 shopping centers around the U.S. The goal was to increase consumer traffic to Taubman malls by enhancing the seasonal shopping experience.

This holiday program has been successfully branded in cross-promotions with Disney’s Frozen, BBC Earth, and Twentieth Century Fox’s The Chronicles of Narnia: Voyage of the Dawn Treader and The Peanuts Movie.

At the City Creek Center in Salt Lake City, we created an enticing holiday experience that featured 18-foot wreaths with a 6-foot lantern hanging inside. The theme extended throughout the shopping center with 78 additional lanterns, 4 which treated guests to an animated display of a classic holiday story.

 

A Branded Lighting Experience At GLAZA