Planning a Mall Trick-or-Treat Event: An Ideal Way to Distribute Promotional Items

Shopping centers and malls all over North America are rapidly catching on to the idea of “mall trick-or-treating.”  This type of event has the potential to draw hundreds or even thousands of people, depending on the size of the mall, and expose them to the businesses located there.

Mall trick-or-treat events tend to be very successful events, no matter where they are held.  Parents report that they appreciate this kind of event because they want their children to have the trick-or-treat experience at Halloween, but aren’t comfortable with the idea of their children going door-to-door.  The practice isn’t considered as innocuous and safe as it once was.  Many people are not connected with their own neighbors, and as such have not developed a sense of trust with them.  Some people, particularly city dwellers, don’t even have a “neighborhood” in which to trick-or-treat.

However, many of these same parents have developed a trust with their local shopping center and the merchants there.  They likely shop there regularly and are at least vaguely familiar with the clerks, managers and/or owners of the stores.  If their shopping experiences have been largely positive, they may even have more of a connection with their mall/shopping center than they do with their own neighborhoods of residence.  For this reason, they feel comfortable with the idea of having their children accept Halloween treats from store employees.

Planning a mall/shopping center trick-or-treat event takes a certain amount of attention to detail, but is relatively easy to pull off with the support and cooperation of most or all of the merchants in the shopping center.  If this is your mall’s first go at this type of event, consider these important points when in the planning stages:

1) Choose your date wisely:  Some shopping centers choose to hold their trick-or-treat event on October 31, the actual day of Halloween.  Others hold theirs in the days prior to October 31.  Those that are held on October 31 tend to draw the biggest crowds.  However, this is not a hard-and-fast rule.  Every city/community is different, so mall owners should try to get a good feel from local residents as well as individual store owners/managers as to what they feel would work best for their own unique situations.

2) Choose your time wisely:  Some parents want to bring their children to the mall for trick-or-treating and then take them out on the streets to go door-to-door afterward.  Other parents choose to make their visit to the mall their one and only stop for candy on Halloween night.  To accomodate both these groups, it’s typically best to hold a mid to late afternoon event that is no more than one and a half hours in length.  Start it too late, and you’ll likely miss hundreds of potential visitors.  Too early, and children won’t be home from school yet.  The only exception is when October 31 falls on a weekend.  In this case the event can probably be held successfully a bit earlier in the day if merchants prefer it.

3) Work at getting all your merchants on board:  Some store owners/managers can be reluctant to participate in such an event, for various reasons.  They may not be eager about the idea of so many children barraging their stores.  They may balk at the expense of providing candy to hundreds of children.  They may simply not want the extra “hassle.”  Make sure as a mall owner or fellow merchant you plug the event, highlighting all of the positive aspects of holding such an event.  Offer incentives, such as discounts for merchants who purchase their candy from stores in their own malls, free advertising opportunities, etc.  Most merchants come around when they begin to see the potential benefits for their own business of participating in such a positive community event.  The more merchants who participate, the better the event will be overall.

4) Be prepared for big crowds:  One of the worst things that can (and does) happen with mall trick-or-treat events is that stores or the mall administration itself underestimates the number of people who will attend the event.  The result is that stores may be understaffed and ill-prepared for the crowds, both to hand out candy and to serve customers who are shopping in the store.  They may also run out of candy before the event ends and end up having to turn away disappointed children and their parents.  It can be difficult to pin down an estimated number of visitors for a first time trick-or-treat event, so much care and discussion ought to go into the planning to ensure that staffing and candy levels will be more than enough to cover visitors to the event.

Merchants and malls can even customize their Halloween candy.

5) Don’t forget the grown ups:  Adults like freebies too!  This is the ultimate opportunity to put tangible advertisements into the hands of the adults who are actually the ones who will spend the most money in the shopping center.  Merchants or the mall itself should plan to hand out some type of promotional gift(s) to parents who accompany the children.  Mugs, pens, keychains, which are the standard promotional gift “staples” are perfect for such an occasion.  Or, choose something a little more “offbeat” or out-of-the-ordinary.  Mini flashlights, stress-relief items (stress balls, etc.) and notepads (to name just a few) make memorable “treats” for adults.  Include coupons for stores in the mall to ensure that visitors return at a later time to spend their money.  Malls may even want to consider purchasing customized promotional tote bags screened with its advertising and handing them out to children, who in turn can use them to trick-or-treat with.

Mall trick-or-treats events, when planned carefully, can almost always be executed with a great deal of success.  The benefits for holding such an event will likely unfold over weeks and months afterward.