May 25 – May 31 is National Family Week in the UK, and a number of shopping centers are taking part.

For example, Glades Bromley is holding a number of great events to celebrate family. Throughout the week, the shopping center is offering lots of fun activities, like face painting, story telling and live performances. It’s also taking part in the National Family Week Picnic, which is attempting a Guinness World Record. Shoppers that register in the event and bring two courses to eat at the picnic will be counted toward the (hopefully record-breaking) total.

Meanwhile, The Potteries is holding “Ask the Family,” a generation-spanning quiz show event. Family teams of four, which are encouraged to cover as many generations and eras as possible, will face off against each other to answer trivia questions that feature many years and many subjects. The two-day tournament will result in several finalists, who take home goody bags from mall retailers, and one winning family that will take home a £200 shopping centre gift card. The shopping center is also holding a number of other family-friendly events, including a dance mat dance-0ff.

As shopping centers struggle to find novel ways to draw in customers, one South African mall has come up with a rather original solution.

Cedar Square has invested in a 50 x 9 meter non-refrigerated ski slope. The slope will be used for lessons and recreation, with skiing, snowboarding and inner-tubing. The slope will also have an adjoining bar, cafe and restaurant.

With a number of US malls testing wave machines, this looks to be a trend toward major attractions. Is your mall building anything to bring in new business?

There’s no doubt that shoppers are looking for bargains right now. But retailers are beginning to recognize the risks of bargain-burn out. It hasn’t been quantified, but there must be a limit to how many “70% off, everything must go” signs a shopper can see before they stop having an effect.

That’s why Westfield’s new fabfinds system is such a breath of fresh air. Using both the online and print resources of its American malls, the company has launched a service that allows shoppers to find bargains at retailers throughout the mall. Retailers get additional exposure and links back to their websites, and Westfield shoppers can browse their favorite stores from home and pick out deals to check out on their next trip in. In some cases, shoppers can order items in advance for pick-up at the mall, guaranteeing some productive foot traffic.

Each week, we feature tips from industry insiders. Have a tip to share with our readers? Let us know.

This week’s tip comes to us from Jeffrey Gern, Vice-President, Sales of Bella Group.

“Having a hard time with your leasing program? Make it easier for new retailers to set up at your mall by offering them turn-key visual merchandising services, such as the Bella Group’s ‘Shop-In-A-Box’ concept.
The quicker retailers can organize their store, the quicker they can start building traffic and generating sales. Offering such services will also help your successful specialty leasing tenants progress into in-line space, while keeping their set-up costs under control.”

Want to know more?
Contact Jeffrey at 888-254-2310 or 972-304-4100 or email your queries.
You can also visit the Bella Group online or stop by to meet their representatives in person at the following industry trade shows:
SPREE 2009: booth #124
RECon 2009: booth #1102

Viral Marketing: Also known as Word of Mouth Advertising. Any strategy that encourages individuals to pass on a marketing message to others, thus creating the potential for exponential growth in the message’s exposure and influence. Just like viruses, such strategies take advantage of rapid multiplication to explode the message to thousands, even to millions.

Remember the T-Mobile dance ad? Turns out it started a trend.

First up, a Belgian reality show got itself some publicity with a very similar (but very cool) display of dance at a train station.

Then Trident got into the mix, with a viral ad publicizing a free Beyonce concert later this year:

New York-based group Improv Everywhere is likely responsible for the resurgence of the flash mob, but T-mobile seems to have started the flash-dance. Got any dancers handy? This one is getting big.