At the recent International Council of Shopping Centres (ICSC) Global Awards, held in Las Vegas, Excellerate Brand Management (EBM) set an unprecedented record for a South African retail marketing company by winning two international retail marketing awards, for work done at Johannesburg’s much-loved shopping centre, Sandton City.
The ICSC Global Awards represent the gold standard for the ultimate recognition in the retail industry, honouring excellence in creativity and innovation that moves the industry forward.
Held annually, categories span across marketing, design and development, and retail store design. These highly coveted awards have been won by the world's top industry professionals in iconic retail cities including Atlanta, Beijing, California, London, Los Angeles, New York, Shanghai, Singapore and Toronto.
EBM won Gold in the ICSC Visual Victories Awards category, for the Lego® Your Dream Car Generated pop-up activation (October 2023) and Silver in the MAXI Awards category for Momo’s Magical Adventure, a proudly South African theatre production (2023 festive season), both hosted at Sandton City.
These offerings, which were both a first on the African continent, epitomise the EBM ethos of transforming retail spaces into destinations that not only resonate with shoppers to visit them again and again, but also leave a lasting impression with unparalleled lifestyle experiences.
Lego® Your Dream Car Generated provided a visceral shopper journey that transcended ordinary life. Through five components, with high-end technology used to activate each stage, shoppers were able to ‘’generate’’ their dream car. With multiple touchpoints throughout the build, including graphics, animation and an interface control panel, shoppers got creative and added details to their hearts’ delight.
Momo’s Magical Adventure was an original theatre production, commissioned by the centre, with an award-winning local creative team assembled to introduce live theatre to a new generation, and take post-Covid youth on an immersive live entertainment journey in a custom-created environment.
South Africans are known for their love of the shopping centre environment, as these spaces have the potential for so much more than to conclude transactional purchases. EBM’s vision is to transform these centres into meeting places that play a meaningful role in the fabric of societal life.
Through the agency’s approach that combines bespoke strategies per mall with strategic storytelling, these centres come alive with vibrant experiential activations, becoming cultural hubs for communities, where friends and families make memories and where the pulse of society beats.
“We have found that the concept of an experiential retail destination, with a well-defined brand that stands out, is fundamental to captivating and engaging customers on a deeper level. We aim to shape these cherished places into relatable personas with hyper-sensory experiences that elicit an emotional exchange between the environment, the event, and the visitor,” said Michael Wilson, chief marketing officer.
“In doing so, we can hold people’s attention and give them those transformative, visceral moments when they connect with the place, and each other, in a special way,” he added.
“Approaching every centre from a perspective of bleeding edge innovation, we play, create and imagine destinations that South Africans of all ages will love. Based on our philosophy that we call “unsame,” we place originality, freshness and collaboration at the core of what we do, and thereby, craft a unique vision for each individual shopping centre we market,” says Darren Katz, EBM managing director.
“By nurturing relationships with our property owners that lead to trust and creative expansion, we aim to create settings that our consumers will never forget, and will want to frequent more often, as we believe that this is where the future of retail comes to life,” he concluded.
