SouthPark Mall Celebrates Its 25th Anniversary With Nearly 100,000 Guests
SouthPark Mall celebrated 25 years of operation from October 15 to October 17. Nearly 100,000 guests joined in the three-day celebration honoring the mall’s quarter of a century operation and new ownership. The event brought in a 24% increase in foot traffic versus 2019 for the same weekend
SouthPark Mall 25th Anniversary Weekend
To kick-off the anniversary weekend, the City of Strongsville delivered a proclamation to celebrate the milestone and recognized SouthPark Mall as a driving force for the community in Northeast Ohio with over 9 million visitors each year. In partnership with SPM Acquisition LLC, Spinoso Real Estate Group donated a $10,000 check to the City of Strongsville’s Towne Center Enhancement Fund
Marketing & Communication
SouthPark Mall heavily promoted the 25th Anniversary through a creative and aggressive digital marketing strategy; including social media, email, and SMS. Third party promotions were conducted via the social media of special guests, radio promotion, and digital print.
PLANNING
- Tenant Relations
- Project Management
Promo & COMM
- Social Media
- Community Partnership
- Media Relations
- Content Creation
Event Management
- On-site logistics
- Retailer Partnerships
- Tenant Engagement
- MC & Crowd Control
PROMO & COMM: SOCIAL MEDIA
SouthPark Mall implemented a social media campaign called Remember When to introduce the anniversary weekend. Posts utilized old photos of SouthPark mall and staged them in the modern-day location. Viewers were asked to share their own personal memories and photos of the mall throughout the years.
Utilized Facebook and Instagram as primary methods to create buzz, promote event and engage with community.
Content distributed through various vehicles:
○ Mall’s various social media
○ Chris Olave, CJ Stroud, and Jeremy Ruckert from Ohio State University’s football team social media accounts
○ Jeremiah Q104 social media accounts
○ Cleveland Magazine social media accounts
○ Monica Robins’ from WKYC social media accounts
○ Cleveland Jewish News’ Twitter
Photos taken for the Remember When campaign include:
PROMO & COMM: Social Media Stories
SouthPark Mall posted 80 Instagram and Facebook stories between 9/20 and 10/17. Overall, 10,012 users were reached via Instagram and 21,945 were reached via Facebook. Several examples include:
Promo & Comm: Digital Campaign
SouthPark Mall sent out four emails to 225,779 to announce the 25th Anniversary Celebration.
A bit.ly link was created and shared via email, Facebook, and Instagram to promote the event. Overall, there were 3,356 clicks to the website via the bit.ly link.
Promo & Comm: SMS Campaign
The mall sent out seven SMS messages to announce the 25th Anniversary Celebration.
Community: Media & Community Relations
SouthPark Mall prioritized media relations, advising on major and prominent media outlets for one-on-ones and local dignitary relations. Community relations included a strategic word-of-mouth initiative, partnering with major media and local influencers to help spread the word.
Promo & Comm: Radio
Three radio shows throughout the Northeast Ohio region promoted SouthPark Mall’s 25th Anniversary. The shows included The Mike Trivisonno Show, The Jeremiah Show, and The Jen And Tim Show. Overall, 123,800 listeners heard about the event.
Promo & Comm: Print
The Strongsville Post posted an advertisement that reached people in all the neighboring cities of SouthPark Mall via print and e-posts. These cities included Strongsville, Brunswick, Valley City, and North Royalton. The campaign ran for two weeks and reached an estimated 28,073 readers.
An advertisement was put in the Sun News on October 7th in tandem with online articles on Cleveland.com. This placement reached approximately 262,000 readers via the print and 9.9 million saw it via Cleveland.com.
Community:Pumpkin Patcht
SouthPark hosted a pumpkin patch provided by a local farmer to the Northeast Ohio Region; Richardson’s Farms. Donations were welcomed and over $1,516 was raised to benefit the Strongsville Instrumental Music Boosters (S.I.M.B.); a program supporting the repairs, purchases, clinicians, and contest fees of the Strongsville High School Music Program. The patch was managed by volunteers from the Strongsville High School Marching Band.
Community: Beer Garden, Food Trucks, And Inflatables
An outdoor beer garden was setup on Friday and Saturday to benefit the JD Breast Cancer Foundation; to support individuals battling Breast Cancer. Over $1,415 were donated to the cause. Volunteers for the organization manned the beer garden throughout the event.
Five inflatables were located in the North Main lot throughout the weekend. Food trucks, including Samurai Dynasty and Kona Shaved Ice, were also in the parking lot.
Community: Chalk Wall
An interactive chalk wall, In 25 Years, I Hope To…, in the North Main entrance to encourage guests to share what they are hopeful for in the next 25 years. The wall was re-painted each day to encourage new guests to share their hopes throughout the weekend.
Community: Real Pop Fusion Performance
The Real Pop Fusion (RPF), an entertainment group specializing in crowd engagement and event hosting, ran various activities during the anniversary celebration. RPF hosted family games, giveaway opportunities, dance battles, high-energy music, and numerous sales and promotions were shared during the event. RPF also supplied $700 worth of giveaways to audience members who won competitions and games, and over $1,000 of SouthPark gift cards from the shopping center were distributed.
Community: OSU Football Player Signing
4thand Goal hosted the Ohio State University Football Player Signing on October 16. Over 230 guests came to see Chris Olave, CJ Stroud, and Jeremy Ruckert. Each player promoted the signing and the 25th Anniversary event on their social media pages and reached their combined 232.1k follower count.
Community: Live Entertainment
To celebrate the 25th anniversary, SouthPark Mall had 4 bands play throughout October 15 and October 16. Musicians included The Whisky Kings, and Emmy-Award winning reporter Monica Robins. Other musicians were The Taylor Tucky Band and The Joey Amato Band.
Jeremiah, a well-known radio personality from the Greater Cleveland area, from Cleveland’s Q104 contemporary radio made an appearance on October 16 and distributed 25th Anniversary swag bags and SouthPark gift cards. Jeremiah promoted the event on his personal and business social media accounts, and posted the various 25th Anniversary activities during the weekend.
Community: Giveaway
Numerous giveaways occurred throughout the weekend, including 25th Anniversary swag with a logo for the 25th Anniversary or SouthPark Mall logo; reusable grocery bags, water bottles, portable dog bowls, keychains, pop sockets, t-shirts, and portable charging power banks. The first 50 guests who arrived on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday all received swag bags. Over 1,000 combined coupons and incentives in each bag. Other items included the real Pop Fusion for SouthPark trivia prizes, competitions, and more.
Each guest that visited the mall received an event map to highlight points of high interest. On the other side of the map, a QR was included to prompt guests to enter an email and phone number to enter the $1,000 shopping spree giveaway. Map cards were placed throughout the mall and in each swag bag to provide each visitor an opportunity to in one of the 2 giveaways. There were over 376 entries and 291 new contacts.
Visitors had the opportunity to participate 4 opportunities to participate in a $500 shopping spree through a “text to win” entry or the Real Pop Fusion raffle. There were over 61 entries with 40 new contacts added via the “text to win” option. Two of the four entries were chosen from the “text to win” code and the other two one the raffle.
Community: Tenant Relations
A Retailer Fashion Show was held on October 15th. The show provided retail tenants the opportunity to showcase their clothing while hosts shared sales and promotions at each store as each model walked the runway.
There were 40 SouthPark Mall employees who participated in the fashion show and acted as models. Each model was entered into a drawing for a $100 shopping spree. Trollbeads donated $100 in gift cards and 100 coupons for free designer bracelets that were raffled to audience members following the show.
The tenants expressed gratitude for hosting the event. Over the course of the weekend, multiple tenants reported the best sales for the year and stated sales comparable to the peak holiday season. Four of the tenants finished number one in their district for sales.