'Tis the season to be merry: How malls are trying to create new experiences with upscale décor

Festive decorations have become upscale and interactive at malls during Diwali and Christmas and they are spending huge money on that.

The Select Citywalk mall in New Delhi has erected a large ‘magical-themed’ castle for Christmas, lined with unicorns on its sides. Phoenix High Street in Mumbai has adopted 'The Nutcracker' theme for this festive season, with ballet dances and classes lined up.

“Festive decorations are becoming lavish,” said Mukesh Kumar, chief executive of Infiniti Mall in Mumbai that has performances lined up with Russian, British, Ukrainian and other international artists performing along with five Indian troupes that participated in the television reality show 'India’s Got Talent''. “It is becoming upscale and interactive now with performances, workshops and it is more like a carnival. Four years ago, Infiniti would put up a Christmas tree in the atrium and some working décor.”


The budgets for festive decorations and the celebrations have gone up too, to as much as a crore at some large malls from just a few lakh rupees as recently as two years ago, said people working in the field.



Abhishek Bansal, executive director of Pacific Mall in West Delhi, said they used to spend about Rs 10 lakh for decorations per festival two years ago. Currently budget for Diwali and Christmas theme decorations have gone up three times to about Rs 30 lakh. Some other prominent malls in Delhi and Mumbai spent even more than Rs 50 lakh on such occasions.

This year, Pacific Mall has gone blue and purple colour decors for the Christmas. On Diwali this year, the Mall did the theme of Thai Ramayana.

“There is a different connotation to Ramayana in Thailand with the Hanuman and Ravan looking different and we got the masks imported from Thailand,” Bansal said, adding that the mall had erected a replica of a Thai port with a boat with pictures of Rama fighting demons.

“Consumer expectations are growing so one has to deliver,” Bansal added.



Mall owners say consumers have seen the decors for years and are now looking for wholesome entertainment and actual celebrations taking place in shopping centres.

“It is not just about beautiful décor but it is also time to create new experiences for the whole family,” said Pushpa Bector, head of DLF Shopping Malls.

DLF Mall of India has installed a giant digital screen in the atrium and placed about 200 bean bags and is showing cult movies for children, like Lion King, Frozen, Home Alone and Ice Age among others for free in the evening for a week during Christmas. Bector said the company was spending around Rs 30-40 lakh for each of its five malls in Delhi-NCR for Christmas and New Year festivities.

Event management firm Q Events showed five different themes to Select Citywalk before the mall operator picked the castle outside the mall and large Santa Clause dolls, deer and sledges among others placed in large decorative circles hanging from the roof of the shopping centre.

“This is a marketing strategy for malls and they don’t see it as an expense but investment,” said Arun Samuel of Q Events who has been working with malls for more than a decade. Next door DLF Place Mall has a giant snowman creation outside the mall.

Samuel said he had seen the budget for prominent malls in India going up from about Rs 10-15 lakh to even more than a crore for festivals like Diwali and Christmas, for malls like Select Citywalk. Q Events has 40 of its 150 employees dedicated to malls.

This practice is not just restricted to major cities but catching up in smaller cities from Lucknow to Bhubaneshwar.

Now even malls in Lucknow spend up to Rs 20 lakh for such festive decors with foreign dance troops performing, according to Neha Chawla, who quit her job as a mall executive in New Delhi more than a year ago to tap the growing market for mall festive business in Tier 2 cities.

“It has more to do with the demanding customers. They want something different and it is very important to attract them with something different,” said Kumar of Infiniti in Mumbai. “It is all about experiment, engagement.”