Ep: 51: Let the Summer of Games Begin!

[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 U.S. 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. Hey Mall of America fans it is so much more. I'm your host today Jill Renzo. I'm joined by my co-host Dan Jasper and Chris Grop. And we have a very special

[00:00:54] guest with us today. She's with our entertainment team, our experiential group here at the mall. So Kylie Passe is joining us today and we're going to talk all things summer because it's summer

[00:01:07] in Minnesota. And we love summer because it's nice and warm outside and it's short and sweet and we love it. So we are leaning into the summer of Olympics. So all roads lead to Paris

[00:01:19] this summer. And so as a theme for a lot of our activations here at the mall is around summer of games and summer of play, because we have so many families that come here from across

[00:01:30] the country to enjoy their summer vacations here at Mall of America. So we want to lean into that, celebrate with them and have just a space of fun. So Kylie kick us off. First of all,

[00:01:40] tell the audience a little bit about what you do here at the mall specifically on the team and then talk about your role in planning summer at Mall of America. Yeah, so I'm the newest member on our team, experiential events coordinator started back

[00:01:54] in February. So this was brought to me by Mary, our manager on our team. And she said, we want to do something fun for summer. We want to get creative. You want to help out. And

[00:02:04] I come from, I worked at the Minnesota twins. So I got a bit of a sports background, big sports fan. I said, sure, absolutely love to. So I think in very creatively with

[00:02:13] summer games and what fits into that. And we kind of activated our atrium is the summer games hub, lots of surprises and delights going on there throughout the summer. And then we also have some bigger rotunda events. We kicked it off with Twiggy, the water skiing squirrel,

[00:02:26] which is a fan favorite. Love her. Yes, we had a break dance competition. And then coming up, we've got three on three basketball tournament as well as a BMX mega jump show. So all sorts of fun and surprising things happening at the mall this summer.

[00:02:40] That's super fun. So if fans are planning a trip to the mall, where do they find out about all these fun events? Because a lot of times we love to surprise and delight our guests when they're here

[00:02:48] and they just stumble across these awesome events. But if people are truly planning their summer vacations and they want to time it with some of the fun events, how do they find that

[00:02:56] out? Yeah, you can go to our events page on the Mall of America website. We also have a full summer hub that'll tell you not only the events happening in the mall, but everything happening in the area as well. It was fun. Yeah. I mean,

[00:03:06] and getting the tenants involved too. So depending on when you're coming, some of the tenants are taking this theme and running with it as well. So there's some competitions. I think right now it's climb zone. Yeah. So the fastest climber gets a prize. So we're doing that throughout

[00:03:20] the summer as well. But super fun. So talk a little bit about that. So there's competitions within our events. How does that work? Well, leaning into summer of games, we wanted to try

[00:03:30] and activate it as much as we could in as many different ways. That's what people expect from Mall of America. So we looked at some of the tenants that maybe had some of those

[00:03:39] opportunities to gamify some of their programmatic or play anyway. So the first one was climb zone. And so they were holding a contest where their timing, so each day they're posting the leader

[00:03:51] board and at the end of the time period, they get a Mall of America gift card. So just another fun way to involve some folks and create that competition, the spirit of the Olympics,

[00:04:02] just gameplay, but with a Mall of America twist. We love to support competition. We have a lot of competition within our team. So I have feelings some of our team members will be up there competing

[00:04:11] to get their name on the board. So in addition to climb zone, where are some of the other competitions being held? Well, in the atrium, we're going to do those pop-up games too.

[00:04:20] So that's been really fun to see Kylie kind of take that and see what we could do, what we could get away with in the atrium, but like the oversize bags tournament.

[00:04:34] Some of the other ones you've done, we've been trying to do the basketball. I don't know if we landed on the hoops we found were a little dodgy, but that's why we have the three and three

[00:04:43] pros coming later in the summer. So we just switched it up a little bit, you know? You find a way to work around it. But yeah, we've got some minute-to-winnit games. Our entertainment team has been super involved in this one. They were so excited about it. They're like,

[00:04:54] oh yeah, we can come up with minute-to-winnit games. Like we're on it. We got it. So we had an afternoon where we tested those. And that was actually, that was a ton of fun. Card throwing? Yes, very difficult. The cup stacking, the Oreo.

[00:05:16] Chris is actually the winner of our cookie face challenge where you put an Oreo on your forehead and then try to wiggle it into your mouth. So he was the one who successfully did that.

[00:05:24] I was hungry. There was an Oreo involved, so I was going to find a way. Well, I believe those that have a need for speed, there's also a competition at Farron 4 with the go-karting. Is that correct? Correct. That's another one, fastest lap time.

[00:05:37] But that's what I mean. We have so many tenants where it applies to those things, but the go-karts are super fun and it'll be interesting to see how those times come back as well. I will not be on the leaderboard. Stuck in a corner trying to figure out

[00:05:51] how to back up again. It's interesting how brands really try to double down and lean into the Olympics during this time of year because you have to be very cautious as a brand, because you

[00:06:01] can't use any of the Olympic branding, the rings, the names and things like that. So talk about the process of how do you support the Olympics without having the branding, the design elements. Dan, I know if you want to talk a little bit about that,

[00:06:16] we've had that challenge over the years when you talk about Super Bowl, when you talk about Final Four, like any of these major events and you have to be careful as a brand

[00:06:23] if you're not an official partner. Oh absolutely. And that's how we landed on Summer of Games, walking that line of people are excited about the Olympics. They love watching it. They love getting excited for it, like some of these other major events that we support

[00:06:39] through our events at Mall of America as well. And I think the idea for a good brand, and I think we do it probably better than any other brand, is we capture the spirit and the energy.

[00:06:50] That's what people get excited about, right? And for instance with our Summer of Games, not only are the folks here at Mall of America going to have fun, exciting things to participate in and to watch, is there people within the local community that have the opportunity to win?

[00:07:04] We're actually distributing a quarter million mystery prize tickets throughout the summer here in the local community and every single one is a winner. So you could win something from the value of $5 up to $599. And then anyone who gets one of those mystery tickets brings them

[00:07:25] to the Atrium, which we've talked about, which for the visitors from our surrounding states that have never been to Mall of America, that's level one North look for H&M and Zara. You can't

[00:07:35] miss it. And we have a wonderful setup there where you can redeem your prizes. And so it's capturing the excitement, the competition and connecting emotionally. That's how we do it. So we've been doing mystery gift cards for quite some time. We've changed up. We distribute them

[00:07:52] at different locations. Talk a little bit more specific about the mystery gift cards. Where can people find them? How does it actually work and how do they participate? So I'm going to tell

[00:08:04] you what I know and I'm not an expert at mystery nor prize tickets. But first of all, anyone can find out the information by going to mallofamerica.com and looking for the summer page. It's easy to find.

[00:08:17] And that gives you all the details. But some of the areas locally that we're distributing these quarter million tickets this summer are a number of amphitheaters throughout the Twin Cities area, US Bank Stadium events, Mystic Lake Casino Amphitheater events, Targets Center events,

[00:08:33] Excel energy events. There are a number of locations. You'll get the mystery prize ticket. You bring it in, we have a machine at in the atrium. I think you use our app to trigger it.

[00:08:45] And that's really easy to download as well. And then you figure out what you've won. And like I said, every prize $5 to $599. So it's really exciting. I love it because we just distributed

[00:08:57] a ton of mystery tickets when the USA Gymnastics Trials was just here last week. And we had an activation downtown and we were handing them out to tons of gymnasts and families and fans.

[00:09:08] And we had hundreds of fans that brought them to the mall. They were going to come anyway. We love having them here, but it just added another level of fun and excitement for them because

[00:09:16] it was a surprise and delight when they came to visit us. So we love those type of opportunities. And it gives us a chance to bring our brand out into the community

[00:09:24] and to bring the fun and energy of our brand and then bring that all back to the property. So I love that. Thanks for sharing. Of course. Chris talked to us a little bit more about the

[00:09:33] opportunities for families to get slimed this summer because we did a little sliming in the spring break timeframe. Families loved it. So I think by popular demand, we are bringing it back. Absolutely. And it's a shame it took us as long as it did to bring this forward.

[00:09:49] But the entertainment team has worked really hard over making the Get Slimed activation, something for families. So now you can either be a single slimer, you can go with a friend or a group of four and that's at the south entrance of Nickelodeon Universe. There are slots available

[00:10:06] to purchase online. And then on the day of you, you and a friend, you and your family have the opportunity to get slimed and people absolutely love it. It's fun to watch too. I know a few of us have been slimed here. I don't think you're there.

[00:10:19] I mean, Kylie still needs to be in line yet. But it is really fun and they've done a great job creating a little show out of it as well. And it's fun to watch the people get slimed, but it's almost more fun to watch the reaction

[00:10:33] of the audience seeing the people get slimed as well. But I'm really happy that we've been able to do that. That's a really fun activation. So just when you thought that was going to

[00:10:42] be all, we have more come in here. So we have takeovers as well. So it's another opportunity for us to get into the marketplace, partner up with a business, do some fun things.

[00:10:51] So who wants to give the details on our takeovers? Any of you guys have the details? Otherwise I can take it if you guys need me to. I mean, I love the idea of the takeover similar to what you were talking about with the

[00:11:03] mystery gift cards. It's just another way to engage with the community. My favorite one that we're doing is with our friends at Bryant Lake Bowl. It ties nicely into the summer of

[00:11:13] games as well, but it's also an icon. It's a Minneapolis icon and I love that our brands are able to connect that way and give something to their fans, our fans and create that synergy there.

[00:11:25] It was very popular last year. So popular in fact, treats is here now because of our takeover. And I just love that we have the opportunity to do that. But that is, that is my favorite one that we're doing.

[00:11:36] Yes. So Bryant Lake Bowl is actually on July 18th from one until three. So you go to Bryant Lake Bowl and you're going to get bowling courtesy of Mall of America. So we're going to

[00:11:45] take care of that for you. And that's what's a lot of fun is literally partnering with these brands for us to pick up the tab, do something special. And it's all because it's the right thing to do.

[00:11:55] It's fun. So following that up, we're at Brits Pub on July 23rd from one to three. And that's going to be lawn bowling courtesy of Mall of America. So go out and have fun.

[00:12:05] Never been to Brits for lawn bowling. It is an absolute blast. And it's super low stakes, not intimidating, but it's really fun. It's a great atmosphere. It absolutely is. And like you said, we did this last year as well. And I think the concept of the

[00:12:20] takeover, people were just learning about it. But it's so cool that we go out and we, like you said, Jill, we pick up the tab, go do something outside of the mall. And it's on us. And it's

[00:12:30] just a fun way to celebrate that connection with the community. So I have to ask, have any of you tried out the new great big game show addition to Mall of America? This is brought to you by the

[00:12:42] creators of the Escape Game here at Mall of America. And it just folds in very nicely to our theme for the summer is being able to continue to add new brands, the building, new retail, new attractions.

[00:12:54] This one we're really excited about. So have any of you had a chance to try it yet? I haven't had a chance to do it. Our public relations and social media team did it on a day

[00:13:03] I was not around. And I think they did that on purpose because they know how competitive I am. And I would have cleaned their clock is all I'm saying. But they said it was awesome. It was

[00:13:16] such a fun experience. They loved the experience and I can't wait to do it. And I will take this opportunity to challenge you guys. Let's do it. Oh, because I too was left out of the

[00:13:27] day when people but also which is it's a great addition. But their two new escape rooms also look fantastic as well. And I'm really excited to try those. Yes, our team's been planning that for

[00:13:38] a while trying to get in there. A fun team building event, fun family activity for the summer, especially if it's kind of a rainy, cloudy day outside. It's a great time to come in and

[00:13:47] we've had plenty of those. We're all going to see some sun, but it's a ton of fun. So I would love to ask you guys when you look at summer of play for your friends, your family,

[00:14:01] what is the one thing that you guys love to do here at the mall? That might be something that families are not as aware of or ideas to do but something fun that for your summer of play at

[00:14:13] MOA. I'd say Farron four. Farron four is always a great vibe. It's always fun up there. It's Chris about you. It's maybe going to be surprising. We haven't done this yet, but if I can put my 19

[00:14:28] year old son in the human crane double dare game, that will be successful for me. We haven't done that yet, but the human crane double dare game. I feel like that has to happen before he goes

[00:14:39] back to school. Other than that, I mean truly I know what's happened, but it's just the mall of America twist on things and it's been really fun to see the events that we have that have that

[00:14:49] element of game that are just fun engaging competition for folks. So therefore Twiggy the Water Seating Squirrel was now a very fun second year tradition for us to experience together. I love it. And I have three grandkids ages nine, six and three. Their favorite thing to do outside

[00:15:07] of Nickelodeon. They love going to Nickelodeon is to do Moose Mountain Adventure Golf. And for those who have not visited the mall or don't know this way of two 18 hole miniature golf courses,

[00:15:18] but Moose Mountain is kind of built out. It's this big experience. It's also easy enough for younger kids to do it, but they just laugh and it overlooks Nickelodeon. So they have this great

[00:15:28] panoramic view of the park. It's one of the coolest views of the park is from Moose Mountain. It's awesome, right? So they love hitting the ball, right? And thank goodness there's a six

[00:15:37] stroke limit per hole. That's all I'm going to say. And that he rounds so you don't get off course, it's not going to go too far. And I would note there is an Easter egg in Rock of Ages Mini Golf.

[00:15:48] If you can find it honoring our co-host Jill too. Oh, okay. Did you know that? I did not know that. Keep your eye out. Look closely at the cassette, the larger than life cassette tape

[00:15:59] for those that grew up in the 70s and 80s and 90s cassette tape is what you carry music on. Yeah. But yes, it is a lot of fun. I'm super excited to bring my family to the escape room

[00:16:11] with the new rooms that they have and also the game show. I think it'll be a lot of fun. The kids were very, we have a lot of very healthy competition in our family. And so it's a lot of fun for us

[00:16:21] to do that. But I think it's nice because in the summertime, even when you come inside, we have so many skylights and with all of our plants and trees and you don't feel like

[00:16:29] you're inside. And so there's a nice transition from the summertime fun and playful because the kids are off from school, they could have fun, there's fun energy. And we've had so many great events recently that have really just, there's always great events, but a lot of that celebrity-esque

[00:16:44] component that really differentiates what we can do here with the star power that we deliver at Malf America. So I'm really excited for the momentum through the summer and even into

[00:16:52] the fall. And sometimes Jill, they just show up. They do. This is a new trend. We get these pop-up events, calls the day before sometimes, but our team is the best and we make it happen.

[00:17:05] And it not only surprise and delights our internal team, but we're able to share that with our fans. So it's a ton of fun. But we also close out the summer with something very fun, a tradition that we started last year in being at the great Minnesota get-together,

[00:17:19] the State Fair. And so we'll be rounding out the summer at the State Fair at the end of August. So one of you guys wants to share a little bit more about what fans can expect to see

[00:17:29] from Malf America at the Fair this year. A lot more giveaways. We will be prepared with the giveaways. No, it was really fun last year. I didn't know what to expect and I was on the

[00:17:40] second shift and it was great as I was walking in. I saw so many people with the Malf America bags. They were everywhere. And I didn't know until I got to the booth that apparently it

[00:17:48] was the hot ticket that day is that everybody wanted their bag. But it was fun. We just had the wheel for everybody to spin, to get a prize. There was slime making, but we're going to lean

[00:17:58] into that and of course make it a bit bigger. More character appearances, more games, more prizes. And you are a fair enthusiast. So this must be a great convergence. I love it. I go a number of days every year. The Fair is 12 days long,

[00:18:15] the best fair in the nation I might add. And I'm typically there about 10 days out of the 12, something like that. I'm always there the first day without fail in the second day.

[00:18:24] And those are the two days that Malf America will be present at the Fair, which are awesome. Last year we were there the first day. First day. Yes. So we have two days this year. So

[00:18:33] double the fun coming from Malf America like Chris said, lots of giveaways. We will definitely have bags again this year because people like to have something to collect all their goodies in. Tons of fun and there'll be a lot of highlights from our attractions because it just

[00:18:47] makes a lot of sense to bring entertainment there. I think you'll see some special appearances by SpongeBob and the gang. So definitely stop by and see us there and we'll have mystery tickets

[00:18:55] so you can even have more fun and come back to the mall. But very excited about that. And so as we talk about summer fun, we've been talking about the Olympics. The Olympics are

[00:19:04] literally in front of us. They're going to be in Paris. Super excited about the summer games. So I would love to round out the show talking about the Olympics because it's going

[00:19:14] to be the talk of the town. And so we'd love to hear from you guys a couple of fun facts. So are you guys more summer Olympics or winter Olympics? Kylie, summer, your summer. Historically, I had watched the winter Olympics more but with my newfound passion for NBA

[00:19:31] basketball, I am looking forward to the basketball this year. That's great. Summer for you. I like them both equally. I love sports in both. It's just so fun. They keep it moving so

[00:19:42] fast. There's always new content to look at. I'm a summer games fan specifically. So now what's your favorite sport or event during the games? Typically, artistic gymnastics but this year we had a break dance competition at the mall. So I'm really looking forward to seeing

[00:19:59] break dance in the Olympics now. Okay. She's alluding to one of the new events. Yeah. I'm excited to see that mostly because there's so much excitement around it and we have such, as you now know, passionate community for break dance. I'm really excited to see that and their

[00:20:15] locations that they have chosen to do these things I think are great as well. So break dancing at the Eiffel Tower. Let's do it. I love watching the swimming events. I remember watching those

[00:20:25] as a kid and lately I've been watching the Olympic trials with my grandkids and they happen to be all swimming related. So it's just kind of a fun connection there. So I'm most excited for gymnastics, of course, because we hosted the trials here and we're going

[00:20:40] to cheer on Suni Lee. She's going to, her and Simone Biles, you just can't, can't not watch them. They're just fantastic athletes but there's so many fun things to watch. And so there are actually 32 different events within the Summer Olympics and there are four new ones

[00:20:56] this year. So Kylie already alluded to, it's actually they're calling it breaking. So as we grew up, it was break dancing but breaking is one, sports climbing, which is also known as indoor

[00:21:06] rock climbing and then skateboarding and surfing are officially on the list. They had a debut in 2020 but now they're officially on the list and what you were talking about unique destinations, the surfing is actually taking place in Tahiti. So it, which is the French Polynesian. So

[00:21:24] it's super cool, these different locations that they're going to expose us all to those of us that can't get there in person. But it'll be fun to watch and I think it'll be a great. So knowing

[00:21:33] that those are four new events, I would love to hear from each one of you of an event that you would love to see someday and maybe something that you would, you know, compete in or be

[00:21:43] interested in competing at an amateur level, maybe but that would be an interesting event to add. Well, ironically, I actually do, I'm quite accomplished at all four of those. So I'm not going to name any of those but I'm excited about Beggs or Cornhole because sadly that is

[00:22:04] something I could probably compete in. With very low injury. Low risk you got it. Man, that's a tough question. I guess I do think like that is really fun. That's something that every man apparently would have. Did I actually stump Chris Graf on a question? That never happens.

[00:22:27] And whatever Olympic sport can you hold a beer can while participating? I would have to imagine they don't allow that when you actually compete maybe when you're practicing but. Yeah, I guess if mixed martial arts ever made it in as a sport that would be

[00:22:41] interesting to see because as the Olympics have changed over time boxing wrestling those disciplines have all been recognized. So it'd be interesting to see if they could all culminate with mixed martial arts. Kylie, how about you? I think for me more of like the dancing and

[00:22:55] cheerleading the ones that a lot of people say aren't sports but they are. They are very difficult. They're a lot of fun to watch. They're entertaining. So I love it. How about you?

[00:23:04] I would be kind of in the pickleball area but I honestly think that that's already been considered. I think a lot of these like when you talk about bags and stuff and I don't know if they've

[00:23:15] been official for the Olympics but there's just so much interest. I love the sports that just take a different level of skill because there's so many of them that literally these athletes have grown up since they were young five years old and they've been practicing

[00:23:32] their entire lifetime to create these skills and so now there's these other sports where you don't have to start when you're five years old. You can literally pick it up as a

[00:23:41] young adult and fine tune your skills and to be able to compete at a really high level. So I like that opportunity where they're really differentiating the types of events that they're recognizing. And it is great that they're honoring tradition but at the same time recognizing

[00:23:54] they need to grow and diversify as well to include these. I mean there's no doubt about break dancing is a sport. Those are athletes. They can do some pretty amazing things but it's

[00:24:05] great to see that. Yep I agree. So hopefully all of our fans will also tune in and watch the Olympics and cheer on Team USA. I think we're going to be walking away with a lot of medals this year

[00:24:15] but there's a lot of different forms that you can watch it. I mean they're recognizing that consumers are capturing their media in a variety of different ways. So NBC is I know the main media outlet but with Peacock and Hulu and all the different streaming services they're making

[00:24:27] very accessible people to watch. Because I think with the opening ceremonies this year being live they were predicting that a lot of people are going to be requesting that day off from work

[00:24:36] so that they can watch or working remotely to take a look at the opening ceremonies but we're super excited for this summer of games here at the mall and just a quick recap because we went

[00:24:47] through a lot of different things. We have a lot of great activations throughout all of our common areas. So definitely check out mallamerica.com. Take a look at our summer programming on there. We're going to be handing out mystery cards throughout the marketplace throughout the

[00:24:59] summer so keep your eye out for Mall of America brandy to make sure you can grab those mystery cards bring them to the mall. We're also doing the takeovers we've got it at Brian Lake Bowl on July

[00:25:08] 18th as well as Brits Pub on July 23rd and we are you know we have a lot of the on-mall competitions and activations such as the Fair on 4 which kicks off on July 8th. So

[00:25:21] very excited for all the exciting things that we have happening at the mall and getting slime Nickelodeon universe. But I would also say although we can't make the trip to Paris

[00:25:31] we can go to sweet Paris. Sweet Paris or sweet Pairie? Do we know what it is? I think it sounds better. But a great little spot that opened up on level one just recently yes. Yes

[00:25:47] I don't know if you've had a chance to go yet. I've actually tried out the location in Woodbury. I have not tried it out here yet but it is definitely on the list. It's awesome. It's

[00:25:56] fantastic. Yes so we have had a lot of new stores open as well so check those out online come visit us in person. We'd love to see you this summer bring your friends bring your family

[00:26:06] happy summer and that's going to do it for this episode of So Much More. Thank you for tuning into today's episode of So Much More. If you want to hear more be sure to subscribe to our podcast wherever you find your favorites including Spotify,

[00:26:19] Apple or Google Podcast and you can also watch a video cast on YouTube. Go to podcast.mallofamerica.com to leave a review ask a question or give us an idea for the show until next time thanks for

[00:26:32] 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 your next trip to Mall of America visit Bloomingtonmn.org for answers to all your travel

[00:26:48] questions deals and packages for hotel stays and so much more.