Sunway Malls wins big at the 2023 ICSC MAXI Awards

KUALA LUMPUR: Sunway Malls emerged as a big winner at the International Council of Shopping Centres (ICSC) MAXI Awards recently when one of its malls, Sunway Velocity Mall, bagged two Gold awards at Las Vegas, USA, the highest accolade of the ICSC MAXI Awards.

Headquartered in New York, ICSC is a global trade association of the mall and retail real estate industry, advocating for the industry to be broadly recognised for the integral role it plays in the social, civic and economic vibrancy of communities across the globe.

Sunway Velocity Mall was the sole Malaysian mall winner at the awards that saw 100 finalists from worldwide – including from Canada, United Kingdom, Denmark, United States, and China.

The MAXI Awards recognises innovative events, programmes and technology that add value to the mall industry. It covered marketing campaigns deployed in 2022 and 2023.

The mall won Gold for its Chinese New Year 2022 “100 Blessings” under the Marketing Excellence Community category and another Gold award for its New Year’s Eve Countdown concert celebrating 2023 under the Marketing Excellence Experiential category.

Previously, the “100 Blessings” campaign also took the highest accolade at a national level when the mall won Platinum at Malaysia Shopping Malls Association (PPK) Awards Best Experiential Marketing 2020-2022.

“The win at this global level is a testament of how Malaysian malls in a short span of time have emerged from a domestic player into a global player,” said Sunway Malls and Theme Parks chief executive officer HC Chan.

“Malaysia can take pride that its mall industry is globally recognised as one of the more progressive, vibrant and world-class industries.”

The “100 Blessings” campaign was a CSR and hope programme to deliver aid to 100 families that were severely impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic, while the New Year’s Eve Countdown was an experiential related campaign to usher in the new year.

Both marketing campaigns garnered good results. The “100 Blessings” campaign saw a 50% increase in footfall against the 20% target; 135 families benefited against the initial target of 100 families; while the New Year’s Eve 2023 campaign witnessed a 39% footfall increase against 2019 and 20% sales growth against the same period.

“We are especially grateful the responses have been better than expected,” shared Sunway Velocity Mall senior general manager Phang Sau Lian.

“The success and recognition of these campaigns serve as an achievement of our continuous effort in helping and giving back to our community.”

Phang explained, “the New Year’s Eve Countdown celebration proved to be challenging as within close proximity of the mall, there were three other countdowns.

“Through a unique differentiation strategy which encompassed free entry, live performances as well as meet and greet with local artistes, carnival games, a food truck lane, and an extended shopping bazaar, we drew an even larger crowd of 100,000 which surpassed pre-pandemic countdown turnout of 78,000 people.”

“We see that the community recognises our contribution to them through our initiatives and many built affinities with us through these campaigns and events along the way.

“If it’s not for their support, we would never be where we are today; doing good for others and serving the community with one-of-a-kind shopping experience,” she added.

Year-to-date, Sunway Velocity Mall sales performance continues to be on an upward trajectory with Q3 2023 expected to see a 6% growth year-on-year. Similarly, Sunway Malls is expecting to end 2023 with a 5% growth y-o-y.