Esprit recently contracted Primedia Unlimited’s shopping mall activation specialist, Mall Active, to increase brand awareness and sales at its retail outlets in South Africa’s top shopping centres.

According to Mall Active’s Travis Brown, Esprit cleverly drove consumers to the innovative activation by giving the consumer the chance to win R50 000 worth of Esprit shopping vouchers.

“Mall Active developed an interactive Crack the Code promotion where consumers were given scratch cards with hidden unique codes. They had to use the code to try and open a branded Esprit safe,” Travis explains. “If they opened the safe successfully, they could choose an envelope which contained vouchers ranging from R50 to R5000.”

Consumers who didn’t crack the code didn’t go away empty handed. “They still received a 15% discount voucher off their next purchase at the Esprit store,” adds Travis.

Mall Active strategically spread Esprit’s activation across Melrose Arch, Gateway, Cavendish Square, the V&A Waterfront and the Canal Walk shopping centres for a five-week period. There were 1000 vouchers, totalling R10 000, available for each mall.

“To ensure that we targeted the largest number of consumers, activations were run from Friday to Sunday each week,” says Travis. “An eye-catching addition to the activation stand included a custom stage, featuring the safe and additional branding elements.”

The stand’s flooring included four glass display boxes, enabling Mall Active to uniquely display Esprit clothing. There were also dressed mannequins on the stage, showcasing the range and style of clothes that Esprit sells.

“The promotion was hugely successful in all of the malls that it visited, and was especially appealing to international consumers who are familiar with the Esprit brand. The style and set up of the stage generated queues at most of the malls, with consumers waiting for their chance to win a prize,” adds Travis.

Canal Walk handed out over 1000 vouchers in two days, due to the popularity of the concept, and had already run out of vouchers by Saturday afternoon.

Busby House’s Natalie Schriebl says “Thank you for the outstanding activations. It was an absolute pleasure working with Mall Active! I really appreciate all the help and your willingness to go the extra mile.”

For more on Mall Active, visit www.primedia-unlimited.co.za

Mall Active
As the leaders in shopping mall advertising and marketing, Primedia Unlimited companies, Primall Media and Primedia Lifestyle, identified a need for a company to specialise in running brand activations purely within the shopping mall environment. Mall Active specialises in the development of innovative, results-driven brand activations, giving advertisers the opportunity to positively influence their consumers right at the point of purchase.