The Annual SACSC Footprint Marketing Awards seek to recognise exceptional shopping centre marketing, innovation and creative achievements, together with economic success, within the South African property industry.
Entry Classification
What you need to know to enter
All entries have to have a centre or company classification. All entries should comply with the guidelines set here. In this case, size does matter: your classification is determined by the amount of overall retail selling space in your centre (including vacant space).
| Classification | Entry Fee |
|---|---|
| Class 1: Up to 15000m² | R1,000 (excl. VAT) |
| Class 2: Between 15001m² and 30 000m² | R1,500 (excl. VAT) |
| Class 3: Between 30 001m² and 60 000m² | R1,750 (excl. VAT) |
| Class 4: Above 60 000m² | R2,000 (excl. VAT) |
The following information will be required:
- GLA of centre
- Full disclosure of the marketing budget (including salaries, retainers and Christmas décor budgets) for the entered project/campaign, plus the total marketing budget for the centre (all sensitive information will be kept confidential).
Entry Categories
*The below categories are defined further in the judges criteria document.
- Centre Productivity
- Retailer Productivity
- Sales Promotion and Events
- Public Relations
- Advertising
- Leasing Support
- Grand Opening, Expansion and/or Renovations
- Community Relations
- Alternate Revenue
- Category Integration
- Visual Merchandising
- Digital Marketing
But What Does It All Mean?
A: CENTRE PRODUCTIVITY
This category recognises efforts that directly impact on a centre’s revenue performance or operational efficiency. Entries must show a direct and quantifiable link between the strategy and how it tangibly benefitted the shopping centre owner’s interests. Eligible entries may include such single examples as a sponsorship effort or a cost-saving operations initiative. Alternatively, entries may be more comprehensive, involving multiple disciplines such as management, marketing, leasing and speciality leasing successes, or innovative ways of generating revenue and/or patronage.
Please Note: Marketing-related sponsorships or trade barters, sales promotion results, and leasing support efforts, are generally not eligible in this category, unless you can show a very clear link to the bottom line as a direct result of your efforts. As an alternative, consider placing your entry in the Sales Promotion and Events, Visual Merchandising, Advertising, Retailer Productivity or Leasing Support categories.
B: RETAILER PRODUCTIVITY
Programmes designed to benefit retailers by improving store productivity, ultimately leading to improved centre performance. The focus of efforts in this category must be the retailers in a shopping centre or group of shopping centres. Entries could include education programmes, newsletters, sales and customer service training, incentive programmes, marketing and operational assistance, or other activities designed to improve retailer performance (These are targeted at retailers, not consumers).
C: SALES PROMOTION AND EVENTS
Promotional and merchandising activities targeting the consumer and aimed at directly stimulating measured and documented retail sales, ultimately contributing to the centre’s profitability. Entries should demonstrate a direct link between the effort and its quantified business sales results.
D: PUBLIC RELATIONS
A planned public relations programme or endeavour designed to primarily benefit the commercial interests of the shopping centre or company. The objective of the event or programme in this category is to address a particular need of the shopping centre or company, not to respond to a community need. This may include strategic efforts impacting on zoning or regulation issues, crisis management or prevention of a crisis situation, or a comprehensive media relations strategy designed to obtain positive news or media coverage.
Please note: It is recognised that a comprehensive public relations campaign may include advertising costs (defined as traditional forms of media, including newspaper ROP, magazine and all electronic broadcast). For purposes of this category, however, media expenditure should generally represent no more than a third of the total programme expenses.
E: ADVERTISING
Strategic efforts to advertise and promote a shopping centre or company. A campaign may be generic or a component of a sales promotion and merchandising, community service programme, grand opening, etc.
F: LEASING SUPPORT
Programmes and activities designed to benefit the leasing effort of a shopping centre or company. Entries may include brochures, campaigns, leasing (centres and convention) activities and temporary or speciality leasing support efforts, or more grass roots level centre programmes designed to attract a specific retailer, or to motivate retailers to lease or renew existing leases.
G: GRAND OPENING, EXPANSION AND / OR RENOVATION
A complete campaign to introduce a new, expanded and/or renovated shopping centre.
H: COMMUNITY RELATIONS
A single or ongoing event, programme or project with the objectives of benefitting a specific community cause or charitable need, rather than a commercial or shopping centre goal. Examples include charitable efforts, promotion or a community cause or presentation of a themed entertainment event that serves a local interest or lifestyle. Entries in this category must be altruistic, benefiting an outside community or charitable cause.
I: ALTERNATE REVENUE
Programmes and initiatives intended to generate revenue that directly enhances the net operating income of a shopping centre or company. This may include sponsorships, alliances, advertising sales, or other supplemental or non-traditional revenue sources. It may include creative or innovative leasing and/or specialty leasing programmes, including targeted tenant retention efforts.
This category may also include unique examples of operational efficiencies or other cost saving measures that resulted in expense reduction and/or increased revenue for the shopping centre owner. Each entry must provide clear documentation of specifically quantified results linked to net operating income enhancement.
J: CATEGORY INTEGRATION
This category is intended to showcase major multi-faceted programs or multi-channel marketing campaigns that are too complex or comprehensive to fit within a single category. This category honours a broadly defined effort and its combined elements to recognise the specific and unique contributions of design, development, operations, finance, leasing, specialty leasing, management and strategies covered in all of the other categories. Entries should demonstrate how the multidisciplinary integration contributed to meeting intended goals outlined by the shopping centre, mixed-use development, or company. Special attention should be paid to the “Goals and Strategies” section, where entrants should list the categories and disciplines integrated for the project/programme. Entrants must also qualify how this program or effort contributed to the net operating income, centre value, or accomplishment of specific property or company objectives.
Examples of appropriate Category Integration programmes could include (but not limited to):
A joint-centre or major company-wide campaign employing speciality leasing, special events, public relations, sponsorship revenue generation and business to business communications with company shareholders.
An effort to grow market share specific to a target market or customer through remerchandising, business to business, leasing, specialty leasing and consumer marketing strategies.
The acquisition, redevelopment and repositioning of a shopping centre using a combination of financing, leasing, specialty leasing, design and both business to business and consumer marketing strategies.
A combination of leasing, operational and marketing strategies designed to accomplish property revenue goals or to enhance centre value for its planned disposition or refinancing.
Unique examples of operational, marketing and specialty leasing efficiencies, envirofriendly or “green” initiatives or other cost saving measures that resulted in expense reduction and/or increased revenue for the shopping centre owner.
K: VISUAL MERCHANDISING
This category is to recognise how visual merchandising contributes to the success of the shopping centre. Entries may be from speciality retailers, speciality leasing managers, marketing directors and/or general managers. Projects in this category may include merchandising of kiosks, retail merchandising units, temporary in-line space, enhancing the common area space with decor, etc. The execution will be scored based on criteria such as the quality of overall concept and design, merchandising, degree of challenge and innovation, and results and impact.
L: DIGITAL MARKETING
This category reflects the changes in the media mix utilised within the industry and is ideal for campaigns or specific activity using electronic forms of communication such as email, web, sms or plasma screens. This could be a promotion, an awareness campaign or on-going centre support. The entry should clearly demonstrate how new media techniques have enabled the shopping centre to effectively engage with the target audience whether this be shoppers or a business audience.
Ready To Enter?
Verify if your entry is in line with the following guidelines:
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Eligible shopping centre entrants:
A recognised shopping centre, its owner, a shopping centre developer, the management company of a shopping centre, Marketing agency or consulting firm affiliated to a shopping centre. -
The promotion or campaign must have taken place or have been completed between 01 January 2023 and 31 March 2024.
Ensure that the entry is in English. - If the campaign was in another language, the campaign should include an English translation.
- All figures and cost must be in South African Rands (ZAR). International currencies if applicable to be converted to ZAR.
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Ensure that you have categorised your campaign correctly?
You are permitted to enter segments of an overall marketing campaign separately. All you have to do is make sure that you’ve referenced the different category sections properly. Brush up on the categories here. -
Do you qualify?
Our committee and SACSC officials will make eligibility rulings based on the criteria, and their decision is final. If your entry is deemed to be wrongly classified or ineligible, it will be reclassified, recategorised or may even disqualified. Any items that even if you pass through on the overall eligibility check, we’ll still remove any items that are ineligible from your entry. Please check your entry before submission. -
Third Party Acknowledgment:
Ensure that all parties involved in the campaign have been acknowledged in the document. -
Footprint Award Publicity:
The winners will be featured in Shopping SA and on the SACSC website. By sending us your entry, you give SACSC permission to reproduce, copy, publish and display all of your fancy entry materials in any format they want to. But, don’t worry; our only use for it all is to advertise the winning entries and not to rip off any of your ideas. Evaluate your entry for publication appropriateness with regard to confidential propriety information.