Promotion/Fundraising: Shopping Mall Exhibits

Dick Moss, Editor, Physical Education Update.com

Would you like extra public exposure for your school program, sports team or club? Then head for the public square of the 2000's - your local shopping malls.

The Shopping Mall Demonstration
The concept is this: set up a booth at your local shopping mall that demonstrates the skills, achievements and goals of your team or program. Produce a video or slide show, put to music, that shows your athletes in action. List their achievements, as a team or as individuals. Run the video continuously and schedule personal demonstrations that will attract even greater attention (i.e. every 15 minutes).

Finally, have a donation jar at your booth, and athlete/coach representatives available who can answer question from potential donors and future recruits.

Why Shopping Malls?
Shopping malls have become more than just places to purchase goods. They're gathering spots for people of all ages.

Also, most mall managers are looking for exhibits, demonstrations and center-court activities will entertain passers-by and encourage people to spend more time in their facility.

When to Perform
The ideal time to set up your booth is during peak shopping periods such as Christmas-time. Try to book Saturdays and Friday evenings -- they're the best-attended times in most shopping malls. Since many malls advertise specials on these days, you may find yourself getting media exposure as their latest "upcoming event."

Business Partnerships
You can ask some of the businesses in the mall if they'd like to partner with you in this event. For example, a fitness business might donate a treadmill, a television store, a big-screen television and DVD player. Place a sign on each piece of equipment to provides credit for those companies.

Sample Activities
With some imagination, you should be able to adapt practice drills to produce a demonstration routine for your sport. Here are some sample sports activities could adapt to the limited space available in a mall.

Basketball: Ball handling demonstrations similar to that of the Harlem Globetrotters.
Gymnastics: Demonstrations on any apparatus.
Track and Field: Starting techniques, throwing events into nets, high jump, running on a treadmill, etc.
Volleyball: Passing and digging drills on mats. Rolling digs are especially impressive.
Football: Blocking drills, kicking into a net, line techniques, passing and receiving in front of a net (possibly involving your quarterback and mall customers).
Soccer: Ballhandling tricks, passing and dribbling demonstrations. If space, is limited, hackeysacking competitions are fun.
Badminton: Entire games could be played on a small-sized court by taping boundary lines and ensuring that no smashes hit spectators.
Skipping: Demonstrate skipping techniques and tricks. This sport is tailor-made for the limited space in shopping malls.
PE Program: Give rotating demonstrations of the many sports and fitness activities in your school, including yoga, fitness classes, etc.

Dick Moss, Editor, PE Update.com, August 2009

To download the pdf version of this
article, click here: Download Now