Ep. 35: Surprisingly Delightful

[00:00:00] Mall of America, for more than 30 years it has been a retail leader and an international destination and it remains the largest mall in the US. Not to mention it welcomes millions of guests from

[00:00:10] around the world. It's huge, but it's also so much more. In this podcast you're going to hear the real stories of how it started and why it continues to thrive. You'll hear about challenges

[00:00:21] we faced along the way and what you can learn from them. We will feature guests and experts from all walks of life and business and along the way you'll laugh, learn and maybe even change

[00:00:31] the way you look at things. So if you're a fan of the mall, a brand new visitor, an entrepreneur or dreamer, prepare to dive deep into so much more. This podcast is presented by the Bloomington

[00:00:43] Convention and Visitors Bureau. Hello, welcome to so much more, the Mall of America Podcast. I am excited to host here today with Chris Grop, our VP of experiential and events and our special guest today, Sarah Johnson, the integrated marketing manager at Mall of America. Welcome.

[00:01:02] Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Excited to be here. Yes. Excited today to talk about Surprise and Delight, something that is very core to our brand. It's something that we believe in

[00:01:14] and excited to talk a little bit more about what they mean to us, how we come up with them, and how the impact they have on our guests. So Chris, I'm going to start with you.

[00:01:26] I'm going to actually call on one of you guys this time. Instead of letting you go, I know. Talk to me about Surprise and Delights. You have a lot of Surprise and Delights on the event side,

[00:01:36] bringing those to life. What is your favorite Surprise and Delight that you've done in Mall of America? Since we're open and candid and like to talk about things that don't exactly work,

[00:01:47] the Surprise and Delight, early in my career here, it was around, I believe it was on tax day, where at the time somebody in marketing had the idea we should go up and give gift cards to

[00:01:58] people just to celebrate, you know, hey, we did it. We got through tax season. And one of our employees at the time was for some reason, convinced to dress up like the statue

[00:02:10] of Liberty. I kind of love it. And attempt to hand out gift cards to our guests. This did not go well because it seemed like a crazy person that you would perhaps run into on Hollywood Boulevard

[00:02:21] or in Times Square with the honest intention of giving away a gift card. So key learnings there, right? We don't need to be dressed up as characters. You sold me immediately on it.

[00:02:33] So I've been here five years now. I've heard a lot of stories about things that we have done or attempted on. This is the first time I have heard this story. Have you also heard the one about

[00:02:44] one of our executives wanting to hide inside the giant Christmas tree in the Rotunda and tap people on the shoulder as they were getting their picture taken with a gloved hand and hand them gift card?

[00:02:57] Surprised, maybe not delighted. Definitely surprised. But anyway, we learn a lot through these things. Some things work, some things don't. But it's evolved over time. And I think it started from an honest place. But now too, it's part of the marketing too, being able to capture

[00:03:12] those things and share those things. So those are some of my favorite things that we'll try it. But now that we have a name to it too and more of a focus or an idea around it, I think those are our humble beginnings with some of those things.

[00:03:26] That is not where I thought you were going to take that question. But I appreciate that. I think that does go into it where not everything goes as we have planned all the time. And being

[00:03:40] able to learn from things and roll from things and evolve things over time is something that comes with our DNA that's out there as well. SJ, we had a lot of surprise and delights this

[00:03:53] summer. Thoughts on our summer campaign and what we're doing these days around how we're surprising us. So our summer campaign last year, so 2023 was all about summers on us from all of America. So everything that pertained to giving back to the community in different ways. And it

[00:04:12] went really well. It was something we'd never done at that capacity, which was fantastic. It was fun to see the community react not only off property but also on property with of course

[00:04:21] the biggest goal to drive people back to property. But I thought it went well. I think people were excited about it. We're learning what we can do going to 2024 based on that.

[00:04:30] Yeah, I'm excited to see what it looks like. I think there are a lot of reasons why that was successful. It was a little unexpected. And it was again, some of the partners that we used were

[00:04:42] obviously it was intentional for a reason but even like Slice Brothers and being able to do that at a location and now Slice Brothers has a location here. Building those relationships with the community I think just strengthens things. And I know the State Fair went really well.

[00:04:59] Was a lot of fun. Yep, we gave away a $500 gift card. Got a producer note here flying in. Tell us about the campaign. Ah, about the campaign as a whole. So again, summers on us was all around

[00:05:09] treating the community. We felt like off the pandemic people needed a little bit of excitement in their lives and understanding that finances might be a little hard for some people. What could we do to treat the community during that time? Whether that's through gift

[00:05:21] cards to shop on property or that's a $500 gift card to wealth America to use as you see fit. We're treating them to some exciting dining experience offsite in the community.

[00:05:31] What can we do to meet you where you are and engage you and treat you and surprise and let you in a way that works for you? Besides the takeovers, talked a little bit about mystery cards in the

[00:05:41] summer as well. Ah, yes. So our notorious mystery card promotion is huge so we've done it in years past but we brought it back again this last year and are continuing to look at how we can evolve it but essentially we distribute about 100,000 cards into the

[00:05:53] community with the goal to drive people back and give them something ranging from I believe it's $20 to 500. But they don't know what it is until they come home to property. So it's a true surprise

[00:06:03] and delight in the sense that you're coming to property, you're going to find out and it could be something as big as a $500 gift card which is very fun in my opinion. So you know you talk

[00:06:11] a lot about the plan surprises that we have but there's a lot of things that come together really really quickly in terms of surprising our guests and a lot of that happens in the

[00:06:20] events world with celebrities and different people here. Chris, talk to us a little bit about planning for the unplanned and how you treat those opportunities that come up really fast. Sure I mean we are set up for success because we have such a strong team that works across

[00:06:39] the departments very well because it's not just the events team that has to jump on board, it's all of us. So for example over the summer like the big one for us was we were trying desperately

[00:06:51] to get in touch with Ed Sheeran knowing that he was doing a lot of pop-ups around his tours and got nowhere and then all of a sudden out of the blue we get a call from Lego that Ed

[00:07:02] Sheeran wants to come and do a pop-up and surprise people, dress as an employee and check a few people out at the cash register and then play his song Lego House out in front of Lego

[00:07:14] and that was something that came together extremely fast but it was also that was successful because it was so contained and they knew exactly what they wanted to do so we were able to bring in the

[00:07:26] right people right away and get that buy-off. It was a super busy weekend, it was right over our birthday weekend and the timing for that just worked out really well so I think it's just

[00:07:34] by nature of who we are and what we do we are inherently prepared for that and we always have a team who's ready and willing to jump in at a moment's notice to make something like that happen. Yeah and I think you touched on that piece,

[00:07:46] we at Mall of America have these awesome tenants right and they have relationships and we in a lot of ways support their surprise and delights right? Tenants have different initiatives from sweepstakes to guest appearances to celebrities and understanding where their business is at

[00:08:06] and supporting them from that standpoint is also something that we do. S.J. Leeds our sort of retail marketing team as well talk to me about how you work with tenants on their ideas and bring

[00:08:18] those to life at the mall. Oh absolutely so it's a lot of different elements but we try to meet with our tenants as often as possible mainly from a campaign perspective but also their

[00:08:25] seasonalities that align to a set tenant we like to do the outreach and meet with them and hear what they have planned and how can we capitalize on that with you? Can we support

[00:08:33] you from a social standpoint? Can we make it even bigger say you have something you want to contribute like Canada Goose do you want to give away a jacket? Fantastic can we add a gift card with

[00:08:41] that and then do it on our social channels as a giveaway or someone's walking around the mall and it can be just a quick delight too. So there's so many different ways that we like to work

[00:08:50] with it you're laughing at me. Well Chris gave away a couple gift cards on social this summer you sure did not easy. This is this I might as well have been dressed like the Statue of Liberty

[00:09:01] I mean it is interesting that you're trying to do this thing and people are here at least suspicious. Is it really? So we tried an experiment because I was with somebody from our social team and I'm

[00:09:13] like I don't know maybe this is just not like the friendliest approach and so she tried it as well and same thing people like not don't have time for it but when you find that person

[00:09:22] who's into it it is really fun but yeah I've had that happen over the years like nope I'm like no no I'm just trying to give you a $500 gift card for no reason other than you're here like

[00:09:33] well and don't they see you after too if they pass up and they watch you do it to somebody else and they're like oh I missed out. Well I think that is part of human nature sometimes is to be

[00:09:41] like a little cautious or suspicious of things right where you're like oh you know people don't get surprised and delighted in um in a happy way that often in life right like it doesn't happen

[00:09:53] normally so when somebody is approaching them or trying to do their instincts is to be you know guarded around that experience in terms of when we talk about these types of surprises for our guests and surprising them not only with giveaways but it's surprising them with

[00:10:11] art at them all or decor those unexpected moments like how do we evaluate or how do you guys evaluate like this is a worthy idea to do like this is something that we should

[00:10:21] pursue further. It depends on the activation or the event but I think when it comes down to if somebody on the team is excited about it and they can articulate the why of where that

[00:10:33] excitement comes from then it feels like that's something we can build off of and I think part of that is it's interesting to me how many people are aware of us but haven't been here

[00:10:45] and so when it's their first time here you want to make sure you're delivering something that we call them wow moments but they are surprises like the public art installations that are huge and take up the full space of the atrium or performances in the rotunda there's just

[00:11:00] there it is a big space we know it's somebody's first day here every day and we want to make sure we're doing something that delivers at least that surprise if not something more

[00:11:11] intentional like here's a gift card thanks for playing. Well and I think that's the piece right it's not always about giving away something you the way you articulated that is spot on where it's it's somebody's first day here right and creating an experience that is unexpected and

[00:11:26] bringing that wow moment that joy that they didn't know is something that takes time and attention to detail in everything that we do but it's something that is is part of what who we are

[00:11:40] from a brand standpoint SJ there's other brands outside of Mall of America that do surprise and delights like is there anyone that you follow or you know admire from a brand standpoint

[00:11:50] from a surprise and delight. That's a great question and I feel like you're going to guess what I'm going to say potentially Starbucks. Starbucks does it second to none they have had their loyalty

[00:11:59] program for a long period of time and I think based on that loyalty program they surprise and delight because of it so on your birthday you get a free beverage where you earn points

[00:12:06] to earn free something of sorts but I think they do such a good job at it was I think the last week our team was talking about Danny goes from our digital team he goes did you see the

[00:12:14] Starbucks is doing $3 lattes today I mean they just do such a good job at surprising people and then it's like oh well I'm going to go this afternoon why not so I think they do a great job from a

[00:12:23] brand standpoint of engaging the community but also making you feel good to I guess contribute to that brand. Tress I'll go with I think Disney used to do it very well at the parks

[00:12:35] and I think it slipped in recent years and I would like to see them get back to it but it felt like previously when we would go there was a moment every time where it felt like

[00:12:45] this is something unexpected that made it feel unique to the individual and that hasn't happened for a long time but I would say Universal is creeping up on them and has been doing a great

[00:12:56] job of delivering those types of moments so it's interesting to see because some people can be consistent and nailing those things and there is an ebb and flow yeah but yeah it's interesting to see

[00:13:07] how that that shifts over time too can't rest on your laurels. Yeah that is true I when I started here the first week we had two Make-A-Wish foundation trips here and it was one of those things where

[00:13:25] Make-A-Wish is such an amazing organization and we've worked with them for years but having those back to back in terms of our brand showing up and taking it to another level really showed to me what's the power of surprise right like there's a planned piece of it and

[00:13:45] there's the surprise piece but just that overall experience for an individual and going above and beyond is just really cool to see from that standpoint so you know I always look at it

[00:13:55] as like how do we create surprise and delights for as many people as possible but also for a very curated individual if we want to do that as well which is great to see so yeah there is that balance

[00:14:06] between the broad strokes for anybody walking into the space on any given day or a very specific function I will say too the Make-A-Wish thing is really impressive here and happy to have been

[00:14:17] part of those over the years because I love when we get asked and there's no hesitation from anybody to jump in and do whatever they can to make that possible and to make it better right

[00:14:25] we're like hey I know they're asking for this but like let's do this let's do this let's let's make that experience as much as possible in terms of other people that you know you are at the

[00:14:39] mall and you have that surprise and delight moment how does that from your perspective how does that as Shay evoke different types of trip behavior like how do we look at measuring surprise and

[00:14:54] delight in terms of brand advocacy or additional trip visits or dwell time talk a little bit about how that funnels into like marketing metrics that's a good question I feel like it's evolved

[00:15:06] so much over time too I've one of my first thoughts I was actually talking to our team today a little bit of influencers as an example and actually influencer marketing are now the

[00:15:14] new advocates for surprise and delight in certain ways and there's an easy way to I want to say easy I'm gonna put that near quotes to I guess measure that of if you're giving them something

[00:15:23] from your brand to give away to their you know channel and their users you can measure impressions you can measure how many people have engaged with it to ultimately win there's ways you can do

[00:15:32] it it gets a little bit more challenging when it's on site it could be as simple I guess as watching a group congregate or want to be a part of it in that way but it's constantly

[00:15:39] evolving in my opinion of what that looks like and how to measure it it's hard question I feel like a little bit but there's a lot of different avenues you can take to get more granular yeah

[00:15:48] it's interesting because there isn't like the traditional marketing metrics for surprise and delight there isn't something that we could say this did to this but it is core to our brand so looking at the impact of that and from media mentions or PR standpoint or different side

[00:16:03] is interesting we only have a couple minutes left so I'm going to do some some quick questions for you guys real quick you know we have a lot of listeners that are

[00:16:14] familiar with Mall of America they probably come here a lot tell them one thing that you think that not a lot of people know about Mall of America that they should check out while they are here

[00:16:26] if it's a store and experience a product an attraction whatever that is that's a little bit unknown but could be something that would surprise and delight them Chris I would say shockingly there are many people that don't know that we do nightly light shows at the south entrance

[00:16:44] of Nickelodeon universe viewable from all four levels it's down memorial day to labor day just because it's so bright outside still but every night we have something for folks to end their day

[00:16:55] with here that I think is really well done and I'm just shocked that people don't know about it more and it's just there for you just there every night just fun as Jay this is hard I'm going to

[00:17:07] go at the tenant base store tenant route more retail focused I think that we have a lot of really wonderful fun experiential tenants that people don't realize have some form of experience in their

[00:17:16] space so Canada goes has that freezer room you can go in put on a jacket people love taking social content content it's just really fun Lou Lemon has an experiential studio space you

[00:17:25] could do a workout class or you could go for one of the numerous events they have hosted in that space too I think there's so many fun tenants on property people aren't aware of that

[00:17:32] are doing really exciting things plug for Worker B as well with their honeycomb yeah Worker B does a great job as well I'm so surprised you didn't mention like the best places to get coffee

[00:17:43] uh you know me well I was trying not to do that for the I mean you talk Starbucks so why don't you talk a little bit about the other favorite places to get coffee go top three in

[00:17:52] order oh yep you gotta you go yeah I think it's going to be the same Nordstrom Nordstrom yeah for sure Nordstrom E bar Lululemon fuels base does a great job yeah Starbucks I think would be

[00:18:05] next from there yep absolutely and then caribou unfortunately would probably have to be bottom it's still good Minnesota local but hey you know it's so interesting I'm capital one cafe you guys forgot about capital one cafe too that's your top theory that is you guys get

[00:18:20] coffee together so often that I should have like doing an episode yeah I should have done something more elaborate where it's like okay hidden top fives ranked each other maybe like family feud style or that'd be good like that capital one

[00:18:36] cafe I'll say is great for the meeting space as well as your coffee beautiful we do that a lot but yeah you're right that's a good call well thank you guys thank you for joining us on so

[00:18:45] much more today talking surprise and delights and have you back next time as well thank you for tuning in to today's episode of so much more if you want to hear more be sure to subscribe to

[00:18:56] our podcast wherever you find your favorites including Spotify Apple or Google podcast and you can also watch a video cast on YouTube go to podcast dot mall of America dot com to leave

[00:19:08] a review ask a question or give us an idea for the show until next time thanks for listening so much more is presented by the bloomington convention and visitors bureau the official destination marketing organization for the city of bloomington minnesota before

[00:19:23] your next trip to mall of america visit bloomingtonmn.org for answers to all your travel questions deals and packages for hotel stays and so much more