From Dead to Destination: So Many Reasons To Visit The New
Knight Avante Hybrid
Except
for the elect few, all mall owners have one. And when you
do have one, it becomes one of those nagging, annoying problems
that you’d do just about anything to make disappear.
I’m talking, of course, of the dead end corridor,
the zero-yard line, the lost and forgotten corner of so
many malls where no one seems to go and no tenant seems
to survive. It’s expensive real estate that cost just
as much as any other part of the mall, but just will not
pull its own weight. Maybe it’s cursed.
Well,
probably not, but even if it were, you need not worry, the
remedy has finally come. On November 11, 2004 Macerich’s
South Towne Center in Salt Lake City, UT, took their “cursed
corridor” and transformed it. What had been the ominously
quiet end of the mall for years has suddenly become the
liveliest, loudest, busiest place in the entire mall. Moms
are there. With them, of course, come throngs of children.
Parents are there. But instead of grudgingly pulling their
child away from yet another “Mommy, Daddy, pleeeease,
Johnny has one”-product, they are actually smiling
and encouraging their children to go there. Boy Scouts,
Cub Scouts, Girl Scouts and Brownies, they’re all
there too. Each week several school groups hold a field
trip there. The PTA is there. Political leaders are there.
Professor’s from the local university are holding
a seminar there.
A good question may be, “who isn’t there.”
What
kind of store could draw such diverse traffic and immediately
become the center of mall activity? The answer is: no traditional
store could. But this is no traditional mall retailer. Called
“The Generation Next Hybrid,” it is a patent-pending
retail/children’s play area/family entertainment hybrid,
designed, manufactured and installed by Knight Avante.
The
retail portion of the hybrid can be any family-focused retailer.
In the case of South Towne Center, the retailer is Knight
Avante’s corporate partner, Dig It! The Fossil Workshop.
At Dig It!, children can dig for authentic 5- to 600-million-year-old
fossils, prepare them like a real paleontologist at the
Paleo Prep Lab, and then take home their prized specimen
and start their own collection. Next door to the retail
store is an in-line children’s play area also designed
and built by Knight Avante. In the play area, children can
climb, run, jump and crawl on soft-foam dinosaurs, fossils,
trees and slides, while their parents relax on the comfortable
perimeter seating. Located in the common area space directly
in front of both the store and the play area is the Prehistoric
Learning Center. There children and adults learn about prehistoric
life by reading books from the dinosaur library while relaxing
on an over-sized leaf pillow, or by examining the free display
of rare dinosaur bones and glow-in-the-dark fossils.
All
three sections of the hybrid are seamlessly integrated,
sharing a child-friendly dinosaur theme. Traffic flows steadily
between all three sections, beginning at the Prehistoric
Learning Center, where mall patrons pick up a trail-guide-type
brochure that leads little “dinosaur hunters”
on a clue-finding trail from the Learning Center, through
Dino Towne Land, and into the Dig It! retail store. The
three sections of the hybrid are cleverly co-branded with
the slogan, “Learn It! Play It! Dig It!”
This
uncommon combination of education, entertainment and retail
venues would itself draw and maintain traffic. However,
the Generation Next Hybrid works its magic by giving consumers
so many different reasons to visit. A few of the many reasons
patrons come to the mall specifically to visit the hybrid
include:
•
Dino Towne Children’s Play Area: Hundreds of premier
malls across the country have installed a children’s
play area because of their proven traffic-generating power.
Unlike most traditional play areas, however, Dino Towne
actually teaches children as they play. Parents are therefore
more than happy to let their children play while they take
a much needed rest.
• Dig It! Birthday Parties: Dig It! Prehistoric Birthday
Parties are a very popular way for parents to arrange a
no-hassle birthday party for their child. Dig It! supplies
the invitations, pizza or other food, a dinosaur-themed
cake, hats, party favors, and a fossil dig for each guest.
Large parties can even rent the exclusive-use of the entire
Dino Towne Play Area for a reasonable fee.
• School Field Trips: Dig It! prepares a curriculum-specific
field trip program for each grade level Kindergarten through
6th grade. A non-profit organization, The Dig It! Learn
It! Foundation, even pays 100% of the admissions fees for
schools that cannot afford the field trip.
• FREE Use of The Prehistoric Learning Center: Any
local community group—scouts, sports teams, boys &
girls clubs, etc.—is able to use the Prehistoric Learning
Center FREE of charge to hold their meetings and/or award
ceremonies.
• Girl Scout Group Events: Girl Scouts come as a troop
and earn their Science Merit Badge right at Dig It! Not
only do they get the fun of digging, but they get to earn
a merit badge, learn more about paleontology, and take home
their very own fossil.
• Cub Scout Group Events: Like Girl Scouts, Cub scouts
can also earn their needed awards at Dig It! Pack members
can pass-off the requirements for their advancement badges
or their gold and silver arrowheads.
• Boy Scouts Group Events: When Boys Scout troops
visit Dig It! they receive a specialized presentation that
helps them earn their Geology Merit Badge.
• Sports Teams: Dig It! is a great place for a team
activity or party. Dig It! can also help teams raise money
through a fundraising program that gives the team an unprecedented
50% of the proceeds.
• Performing Groups: Music, dance and other performing
groups hold recitals or performances free of charge at the
Prehistoric Learning Center. Their event also gets listed
for free on the Dig It! Calendar of Events.
• Book Clubs: With so many mothers already at the
hybrid, The Prehistoric Learning Center has become a favorite
location for mothers to hold their regular Book Club meetings.
While they relax and visit, their children play in Dino
Towne or dig at Dig It!
• Golden Apple Award-Winners Speeches: Winner’s
of The Golden Apple Award, which honors the state’s
best educators, give regular speeches at The Prehistoric
Learning Center to parents and teachers on important educational
topics.
• Franklin Covey “7 Habits of Highly Effective
Families” Seminars: Franklin Covey hold FREE daily
seminars on the 7 Habits of Highly Effective Families. Each
day’s presentation focuses on one of the seven habits.
• Children’s Geology/Paleontology Workshops:
Professors form the local colleges and universities have
teamed with Dig It! to offer free workshops designed to
peek children’s interest in paleontology and geology.
Workshops are held twice a month on Saturdays.
• Dino Story Time: “Professor Dig It!,”
an expert on dinosaurs and paleontology holds a story time
twice daily when he reads to children from dinosaur-themed
books and tells exciting tales from his days as a dino hunter.
• Fossil Workshops: Two times a day, Dig It! staff
members hold free fossil workshops at The Prehistoric Learning
Center, where they highlight one specific fossil and teach
children fun facts about its name, origin, and where it
is found.
• Other Promotional Events: The Prehistoric Learning
Center also serves as the ideal location for other mall
promotional events like visits from Santa Claus or the Easter
Bunny, promotion/event kick-offs, media days, or other special
events.
As you can see, the hybrid is much more than just another
mall retailer, it becomes the “family zone”
at any mall. With parties, seminars, workshops, field trips,
community groups, speeches, performances and other fun events
happening on a daily and hourly basis, there is always a
crowd at that end of the mall. The retail space surrounding
the hybrid benefits significantly from this increased traffic
and the value of that once “cursed’ real estate
increases.
The
Dig It! hybrid described here is only one of several options
for a family-focused retailer. Knight Avante has developed
and patented the necessary components and concepts for this
seamlessly integrated retail destination. The concept is
fluid and adaptable to each specific mall and to a specific
retailer that will best appeal to that mall’s patrons.
The overall purpose of the Generation Next Hybrid is to
increase profits for mall owners by appealing to today’s
most lucrative demographics—mothers, children and
families.
