"I didn't expect so many people to come, at least 800 group photos, and before I set off, the action camera forgot to turn off and was already full......
This is what Tong Gua (a well-known blogger in Chengdu with more than one million fans on the whole network) said to me after being invited to participate in the first Xinnan 99 Cycling Challenge.
In this 99KM professional cycling challenge, everyone's social needs are amplified, say hello, take a group photo, make friends, and some very daily social behaviors occur naturally in such a scene.
It has been more than a year since CapitaMall New South (hereinafter referred to as CapitaMall New South) proposed to build "Chengdu's first sports-friendly shopping mall".
Today's CapitaLand New South is no longer obsessed with creating a certain persona, but has begun to switch roles more flexibly, so as to link more social resources and attract more urban consumers.
Taking cycling as a starting point, CapitaLand New South has become more determined and in-depth on the road of green, healthy and fun socialization.
From taking a photo to making a friend,
What role does the mall play in this?
According to data from the China Cycling Association, as of 2022, more than 100 million people across the country ride regularly or use bicycles as a means of transportation, and nearly 10 million people participate in cycling.
In Chengdu, a plain city with mature greenway infrastructure, there are not a few people who are keen on cycling. According to public reports, the latest data in 2023 shows that the average daily riding population of shared bicycles in Chengdu is as high as 2.2 million.
Also in the year when Chengdu's daily cycling population exceeded 2 million, CapitaLand New South took the lead in proposing "cycling friendly" in Chengdu, and quickly continued to reinforce this label impression from the event promotion side.
In April last year, on the opening day of the first urban cycling transfer station built by it, a "Spring Wave" 100-person urban cycling program also started from the project, and joined hands with Kendal to open the "Free and Wild" outdoor season.
A year later, CapitaLand New South upgraded the urban cycling program to a more professional cycling challenge, which seemed to have a "threshold", but attracted more cycling enthusiasts to participate in it, so there was a statement at the beginning of the article, and millions of bloggers Tong Gua also said that "I didn't expect so many people".
More importantly, 200 people rode bicycles through the streets and alleys of Chengdu, which was not only a CityRide to enjoy a personal experience, but also a community activity with a strong social attribute.
Among the 200 people, there are not only professional riders, but also Internet celebrity bloggers, cycling enthusiasts of different ages, and even ordinary consumers who have successfully completed the race on shared bicycles...... "interest" has become the key word for everyone to gather at CapitaLand New South to complete this social carnival together.
The so-called "friendly", no matter what the previous words are, should not only be the self-congratulatory of the project operator, but should link up with more brands participating in the commercial space to join the friendly practice team.
A social scene that can stimulate social desires and provide satisfaction of expectations may be the deeper challenge for "XX Friendly".
Therefore, in addition to setting up transfer stations to provide cycling enthusiasts with daily value-added services such as stopping at any time, instant charging, free water and gas, as well as daily value-added services such as leisure breaks, CapitaLand New South has also cooperated with M Stand, Quchashan, Starbucks and other peripheral brand stores to jointly promote the construction of "cycling-friendly stores".
In 2023, CapitaLand New South will launch hundreds of cycling activities with cycling as the fulcrum.
Starting in 2024, the project will focus on the core concept of "sports + socialization", continue to increase diversified community sports such as skateboarding, martial arts, table tennis, health care, etc., leverage more general sports social resources, and create a fresh consumption scene and atmosphere.
CapitaLand New South is not only building its own sports social ecosystem, but also trying more interesting social content at the same time, and continuously updating the social scene for consumers who come to the project.
1. The East Plaza introduces brands with strong social attributes to complete the renovation of the interface along the street.
On the one hand, a number of stores have achieved free connection between the inside and outside of the project through space transformation, breaking the traditional form of the main entrance of the mall, allowing everyone to enter and exit the project from "all directions", which greatly enhances the permeability and accessibility of the box business.
On the other hand, Go to Chashan, M Stand, Nayuki's Tea, and Bawang Tea Ji are all matched with external spaces, forming a distinct and prominent social lifestyle field atmosphere.
In this way, the functional level can be more convenient to achieve diversion, and the experiential level presents a very chill daily social atmosphere.
2. The South Plaza, which is close to the IKEA store, is an excellent social outdoor venue in CapitaLand New South.
Previously, it has presented a number of sports social scenes, including football, baseball, frisbee, etc., and now it has been further opened and upgraded, attracting the first store in the city of UP Skateboarding Extreme Park.
The Extreme Park mainly includes skateboarding, BMX, and roller skating, and has become a gathering place for skateboarders in the south of the city, and also holds various community activities from time to time in combination with the Internet celebrity wall.
The reason why taking photos and checking in is favored by young people is because behind this behavior is a strong desire to share and social needs.
So why can't our malls do a little more, so that people who would otherwise just take a picture and leave are willing to stay here a little longer, or even look forward to making friends here?
Perhaps, our criteria for evaluating the value of an event need to change, not only to look at the obvious presentation of the event, but also to pay attention to the spiritual feelings and infections that it can bring to consumers, as well as the opportunities for commercial projects and brands to "play together".
In other words, the fundamental purpose of escalating activities is to create more diverse social and emotional values.
"From the epidemic to the present, the project's customer base has achieved remarkable results, and it has also successfully achieved an increase in customer flow, and it is clear that the sophisticated customer group with higher needs for lifestyle and social functions is more and more willing to come here. This is the personal experience of the general daily tour of CapitaLand New South.
Use events to build a social scene to attract more "new consumers".
Moreover, their arrival is not just about taking a photo and checking in, but they are unconsciously willing to meet "new friends" and "new circles" through activities, and use this place as a daily social destination.
From passing by to see sit down and talk,
How to find like-mindedness more flexibly and accurately?
At first, it seemed to be an upgrade of activities on the promotion side, but in fact, CapitaLand New South's role as a commercial operator has changed.
In the process of continuous optimization of event content and continuous iteration of social scenes, CapitaLand New South's role is actually multiple and changeable at any time, it is not only the initiator and planner of the event, but also the joint party and grafter of resources.
MBO, one of the top three cycling clothing brands in the domestic market, was full of interest in the event when MUCHBIKE cooperated deeply to prepare for the Xinnan 99 Cycling Race, so it decided to open the city's first offline pop-up store at the shop opposite MUCHBIKE, and the whole process of reaching cooperation took only one day.
In a similar case, SUPERTEAM, a cycling wheel specialist brand, who offered to be the exclusive sponsor of the 99 Cycling Race, has also taken the opportunity of the event to start discussing other forms of cooperation.
I believe that it is because in the process of personal participation, the brand owner truly felt CapitaLand New South's event planning ability and resource grafting ability, as well as the sincerity of being willing to communicate and co-create with more like-minded brand friends.
ACMEITEM, a sports light outdoor brand that cooperates in the form of multi-point promotion, is also a good example.
Aikemi, which has accumulated a certain amount of popularity online, chose to open an offline store in CapitaLand New South.
As the first store in Chengnan, AKM believes that the healthy lifestyle attitude of enjoying outdoor happiness that the brand wants to emphasize is very compatible with CapitaLand New South's project concept of "Naturally Fun", and the two have the same customer base and tonality, which is a perfect fit.
After landing in CapitaLand New South, Aikemi also cooperated with 028. C cycling community and other tenants in the venue such as Pima Chat actively carried out community activities, not only the ping effect reached nearly 4,000 yuan/㎡, but also the original single tenant role has become more three-dimensional and vivid.
At first, Aikemi was only planned to be presented as a pop-up store. Now, Aikemi and CapitaLand New South have reached a consensus on a longer-term cooperation, which has changed from fast to slow, making the chance encounter more lasting and long-lasting.
I believe that not only the outdoor sports ecology led by cycling, but also more sub-formats such as fashion and interactive social networking with people and pets in the future may also follow a similar logic to present more activity gameplay and content possibilities in CapitaLand New South.
For example, JONIWOOL, a collection store of trendy brands, has joined hands with CapitaLand New South, and more and more young consumers are willing to come to share their interests, personalities and attitudes towards life.
JONIWOOL's product categories include clothing, trendy shoes, trendy bags, accessories, fragrances, etc. Among them, there is a trendy brand Subtle from Hong Kong, because there are many celebrities with the same style, which has attracted many young people to visit and buy.
After the opening of JONIWOOL, CapitaLand New South also connected the store consumption with the mall's membership system, and helped the brand expand its customer base and increase consumption stickiness by cashing in points.
At a time when psychological healing and companionship economy are increasingly attracting consumer attention, the cat collection store "Mao Ligi", which focuses on cute pet socialization, will also be officially unveiled in CapitaLand New South on May 1.
This brand not only has a warm and healing cat space, but also provides a variety of cats for sale, located in the extension space on the east side, which is also convenient to present a more comfortable and friendly social scene for the majority of pet lovers.
Obviously, from CapitaLand's standpoint, the upgrade of event planning logic is not only to build a diversified social scene with content for consumers, but also to have richer channels for shopping malls and brands to play together.
Not only do consumers find like-minded partners and get a sense of social pleasure through the activities built by the project, but the cooperation between shopping malls and brands is actually a process of finding common interests and going both ways.
In this process, due to the timely change of roles, CapitaLand New South and the brand have developed a more flexible and diverse way of cooperation.
Through one or two activities, try to "take a look" and then find that you can sit down and "talk" with each other. It is no longer just a "spectator" to watch, but a "participant" who wants to talk.
How to build a vibrant ecosystem?
There is no second answer other than "sincerity".
The traditional era of investment promotion has passed.
Just like if you want to write about snow, you can't just write about snow, but you have to write about thousands of trees and pear blossoms. If you want to attract investment, you can no longer just talk about shops and rents, but also come up with more flexible solutions and provide more possibilities.
For example, CapitaLand New South is trying to test the waters through event participation, or it can adapt to the project and market in the form of pop-up stores, and there will even be active incubation and active co-creation.
For the brand, whether it is the idea of event planning and the construction of social scenes, or the way of expression and presentation that is open enough, CapitaLand New South has sincerely given more space for co-creation and discussion.
For shopping malls, it is undoubtedly more challenging and rewarding to unite tenants, graft brands, deepen operations, and create a social ecosystem with long-term vitality.
Therefore, we see that CapitaLand New South is building activities with strong content and strong participation to achieve full links between the upstream and downstream of related formats and brands.
CapitaLand Xinnan, which has always been known for its "small but beautiful", is also making itself more attractive and tense by "borrowing momentum from the outside and growing inward at the same time", creating infinite possibilities and becoming an "all-rounder" in another sense.
It is probably the most special member of the business district, and its neighbors can become its main stores, such as IKEA, Decathlon, and RT-Mart.
So much so that some media friends sighed: "CapitaLand New South is an important vitality factor of New South Place, and every movement of CapitaLand is enhancing the voice of the entire business district."
At the same time, it is a leader who is constantly enriching itself.
Despite having only about 50,000 square meters of commercial space, CapitaLand New South has always maintained a keen sense of smell and great vitality in the market, so much so that it often brings city-level activities and continues to attract high-quality brands and resources.
The times are driving market changes, and the deeper and more stable cooperation between the project and the brand must be based on mutual recognition and like-mindedness.
How to find like-minded people more flexibly and accurately is not only the psychological needs of the new generation of consumers, but also the operational needs of current commercial projects.
There is only one key word needed to answer this question: sincerity.
It is precisely because of this that CapitaLand New South can make more brands willing to try to play with it, and at the same time, more people will want to play with it.
In my opinion, cycling friendliness is not a positioning, but an attitude.
One of the key takeaways from CapitaLand NSN is –
There is no need to emphasize what kind of "personality" you are, but to embrace your peers with a more inclusive and open attitude, and a more sensitive and flexible way, and play every "role" in different scenarios.
In fact, shopping malls have long been more than just places for "shopping", but also scenes and content that respond to social needs and arouse emotional resonance, which are becoming the core competitiveness in the new market context.
2024 marks the 30th anniversary of CapitaLand's entry into China, and it is not only CapitaLand that deserves to be seen and experienced by more people, but also Chinese consumers in the new era who deserve more sincere operators to bring them a more timely and fulfilling social experience.