British Land aims to boost mall footfall with augmented reality game

By

Sandra Halliday

Published
Nov 7, 2016

British land is aiming to attract more families to its malls for longer periods in the key Christmas shopping season with the rollout of a new augmented reality game that can be played on smartphones.

The shopping centre giant, which owns a raft of properties including Meadowhall, Drake Circus, Teesside Stockton, and Glasgow Fort, undertook research that showed events and entertainment in shopping centres can increase the amount of time people spend there by 41%.

The company also said a recent enlivenment campaign increased footfall by 180bps ahead of the portfolio average.

Analysts have been encouraging shopping centres to be more pro-active in attracting shoppers, especially families with children. These shoppers are often more likely to gift- and fashion-shop online in order to reduce the stress of crowded shopping centres. This has meant that fashion stores in shopping centres are seeing slower footfall this season.

British Land has linked up with tech specialist Harmony Studios to produce the first of four games to keep children entertained while parents do more shopping ahead of Christmas.

The first game is based around snowman Freezy and involves a virtual gift hunt with prizes including toys, iPads, and vouchers. Twenty one of its shopping centres are taking part.

“We have a loyal customer base who often shop with their children (18.3% compared to the national average of 14.8%),” British Land said. “So we think a family game that can be safely uploaded and played again and again is perfect for our customers and their children.”