Call of the Mall

Pyjamas were the apparel of choice for North Riverside Park Mall’s holiday kick-off

The Holidays have a way of turning ordinary people into shopping commandos. It was certainly the case for the more than 500 eager customers who stormed North Riverside Park Mall (NRPM) in Illinois, USA, at 5.30am last 23rd November.
It was the day after American Thanksgiving—Black Friday, as retailers have come to call it because it represents a time in the year when shop owners look forward to getting ‘in the black’. While competitors observed the Midnight Madness tradition, flinging open their doors to bargain-hunters at the strike of midnight, NRPM took a slightly different approach, opening at 7am and luring customers with the prospect of an exciting yet comfortable shopping experience.
Dubbed Wake Up Shoppers, the promotion entailed rewarding the first 300 shoppers who’d make a purchase of any amount that day with a holiday gift bag filled with coupon offers from centre retailers, a voucher for a free cup of coffee and a cozy fleece blanket to cuddle up in after a long tour of shopping duty—ten of the recipients would find a $100 (£50 or €64) gift certificate tucked in their bag as well.
The excitement part of the offer also included a chance to win one of five $200 (£100 or €128) shopping sprees, while the comfort element was an invitation to shop in pyjamas.
“If our shoppers were going to spend their early Friday morning with us, I wanted them to be comfortable,” said Jeff Rutzen, marketing director. “And what’s more comfortable than your pyjamas?”
From 7am until noon, a pyjama-clad Rutzen and his staff handed out gift certificates to shoppers at random times and locations throughout the centre, provided they were wearing their pyjamas and were lucky enough to be spotted by the promotional crew.
The first winner was picked at 7.30am and selected for having gone the extra mile by shopping in ‘footie’ pyjamas and a blanket, as well as wearing a green mud mask.
There were plenty of other surprises awaiting shoppers during the holiday season.
The Radio Disney AM 1300 Party Patrol read Wake Up Santa Claus! to more than 200 NRPM kids club members who attended the Santa Arrival & Breakfast Party. The first 100 children to show up received a free stocking filled with prizes, and there were also a pair of tickets up for grabs to see Disney phenomenon, Hannah Montana live in concert.
Between 26th November and 9th December, the centre offered a pair of men’s flannel or women’s fleece pyjama bottoms to anyone who spent $150 (£75 or €96) or more in one day.
According to Rutzen, the average spend per pyjama was $243 (£121.50 or €155) and the centre ended up giving away more than 800 pairs of pyjamas within a week.
Retail staff got a wake-up call of their own. The stores that allowed their employees to wear pyjamas on Black Friday received a complimentary breakfast from Dunkin’ Donuts, and Rutzen even volunteered to deliver it to them.
Rutzen didn’t incur any additional costs to implement the Wake Up Shoppers promotion. He simply made it part of the centre’s overall holiday campaign. 
“It in fact generated cost savings through trade with the radio stations,” Rutzen explained.
“103.5 KISS FM, which did the Pajama Jam portion of the event, was a sister station of WLIT, the all-holiday music channel where I did the bulk of my radio advertising, so I was able to save money by working with the two Clear Channel stations. I also had a lot of left-over Santa giveaways from 2006, so I used the money I budgeted for new giveaways and put it toward purchasing mall-branded fleece blankets and key chains for the gift bags. Everything else in the gift bags was contributed by mall tenants, including offers like the free Dunkin Donuts coffee coupon. We always run a holiday gift with purchase (GWP) and a free gift with $50 (£25 or €32)€gift certificate purchase, so I just tailored those to the Wake Up Shoppers promotion by using pyjamas for the GWP and $5 (£2.50 or €3.20) Starbucks cards for the gift certificate promotion.”
In addition to the deal with the stations, Rutzen ran a full media-relations campaign.
“I was initially going to solely rely on the built-in public relations through my partnerships with WLIT and KISS FM, which did generate a great amount of buzz, [then in turn got us] mentions in various Chicago newspapers and radio stations,” Rutzen noted.
“However,  I did end up reaching out to other news organizations prior to the event and secured an on-air interview with WGN radio just a few hours prior to the event; which several shoppers did mention hearing when I was talking with them as I handed out gift bags.”
The strategy worked. Shoppers came out in droves and more than 500 Starbucks cards were given away, representing over $25,000 (£12.500 or €16,000) in gift certificate sales.
“This was the epitome of a successful promotion. When you can ask your shoppers to come out on a bitterly cold November morning and shop in their pyjamas and then see hundreds of people walking around your mall in robes and nightgowns, arms loaded with bags and packages, that’s pretty neat,” Rutzen said.
“We absolutely plan to do this next year. One of the radio stations that featured us last year on a Black Friday countdown show has already contacted us about being a part of the event for this Holiday. We are currently exploring several ideas on how to generate an even bigger buzz. We’re going to make it more of an event with bigger prizes and maybe turn it into more of a contest—the more outrageous the better.”
Whatever he comes up with, commando shoppers will likely be ready to charge.

Media Mix

Print
• Advert in Chicago Sun-Times

Radio
• Coverage on 103.5 FM KISS FM (November)
• Spots on 92.9 WLIT FM, an all-holiday music channel (December)

Direct Mail
• A four-panel, four-colour direct-mail piece featuring illustrations of shoppers and Santa in their pyjamas

Onsite
• Tent cards, decals and seasonal store directory

Web 
• A holiday Website  •Two e-mail blasts                 

Source: North Riverside Park Mall.