Retail News South Africa

Footprints flood shops for a wedding

A mass wedding staged by the Gateway Theatre of Shopping in Durban has won the South African Council of Shopping Centres (SACSC) Footprint Awards Grand Prix. The awards, which recognise outstanding shopping centre promotions, were contested by a record 73 entries from around South Africa.

Presentation of the Awards took place at the 10th African Congress of Shopping Centres organised by the SACSC at the Cape Town International Convention Centre from 21 to 23 September.

Marketing and advertising authority Dr Ludi Koekemoer says: "There were four major contenders for the Grand Prix, and in the end we went back to the individual scoring to find that Gateway held a 1% lead over the others and took the prize."

The winning entry, organized by promotions company Lifestyle Communications, increased the 'foot-count' at the shopping centre by 72.4%.

This is the third year in which the Footprint Awards have been made. Twelve Gold Awards were made, 14 Silver and 16 bronze.

"Another mark of progress was the number of outstanding entries from smaller shopping centres which do not have the same financial and professional resources as some of the megacentres.

"In other ways, progress and improvement was marked by more impressive projects with bigger budgets. This means the industry is coming of age, and ready to apply professionalism and resources to projects," Koekemoer says.

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