In an interesting marketing twist, Lambton Mall mailed out 30,000 pieces of wrapping paper to local homes. One side of the paper had holiday-themed visuals, while the other side featured a full-color calendar of mall events.

Santa’s arrival at The Galleria at South Bay—in a local traffic helicopter—was among the highlights of weeks of festive activities planned.

We examine some marketing strategies for small centers. Although the numbers constantly change, approximately 45,000 of 47,000 malls in the U.S. are small centers on a shoestring budget.

As an enhancement to the shopping experience, Bluewater offers guests over 50 acres of landscaped parkland. Bluewater partnered with Land Rover to create the “Land Rover Adventure Zone”—an hour-long guided ride that showcases the scenic parkland, as well as Land Rover’s 4x4s.

Six contestants competed for seven days to win a new car, with the public voting one of them out of the car each day.

Santa Rosa Mall sought to lure in more shoppers, so the mall brought in Dino-MAE Creations, creators of the animatronic “World of Whales – Past to Present” exhibition.

Although Quaker Bridge Mall enjoyed market dominance in teen fashion, the center was determined to attract families to its 25th anniversary celebrations. To do so, it created ‘Saturday Mall Fever’, events designed to be fun for teenagers and nostalgic for their parents. Sales increased 6% during the back-to-school season, and traffic increased nearly 12%.

The enigmatic ocean floor recently came to life for shoppers at Lehigh Valley Mall, thanks to an underwater exhibit on display. The program included coral reef tanks, live predator displays, a cyber sea-diver experience, and touch-tank shows every hour. In addition to high praise from kids, retailers reported a positive increase in sales.

Newgate Mall sought to capitalize on the Salt Lake City Olympics; but instead of trying to bring the world to its door, it aimed to attract locals instead. Plush Olympic mascots were available as gifts-with-purchase, contests were held for Olympic pins, the mall’s TVs were tuned-in to the Olympics, and food court merchants gave away Team USA party horns with each purchase.

As part of its grand re-opening, Willow Grove Park aided charity by auctioning tabletop-sized carousel horses that were decorated by celebrities. The horses were replicas of the mall’s new carousel, a key attraction and visual focal point of the renovation. The event saw sales rise 40% over the previous year, food merchants reported an average sales increase of 90%, and more than $26,000 was raised to benefit cancer prevention.