Malls adopt cartoon characters to create a festive shopping mood
As Christmas approaches, malls turn to cartoon characters to create a festive shopping atmosphere
Each Christmas season, shopping centres in Hong Kong turn into wonderlands, with twinkling lights, towering festive trees and non-stop seasonal music.
But instead of Santa, retail centres' themed attractions this year have mostly been replaced with international animated cartoon figures: from America's Snoopy, SpongeBob and Buzz Lightyear, to Japan's My Melody and Pom Pom Purin.
With retail sales growth during the holiday season expected to be challenging, shopping centres are going on spending sprees and looking for fresh ideas to enhance the visitors' experience and get them in a shopping mood over the coming weeks.
"Cartoon characters are always welcomed by shoppers and their families," said Maureen Fung Sau-yim, general manager (leasing) at Sun Hung Kai Real Estate Agency.
It also creates a happy atmosphere, said Fung, who adopted Snoopy as the themed attraction for the company's APM mall in Kwun Tong. This year is the 64th anniversary for Snoopy and the 65th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China, she said, adding that the themed attraction was also used in its mainland shopping centres, Shanghai's IFC and iAPM.
Joe Lin, executive director of Retail Services Asia at CBRE, said mall operators had been thinking of innovative ideas to draw customers and encourage them to spend as the market sentiment might be challenging due to the recent pro-democracy protests, which could carry on into one of the busiest retail periods next month.