The Vancouver Mall is hosting an end of summer community engagement activity encouraging people to explore and interact with different sites around the property now through Aug. 14.
“The purpose behind the Great Summer Dash is to connect with our community in the means that they have,” said
Centennial District Marketing Director Tawny Richey, who added the event connects the digital and real worlds inside the mall.
The Vancouver Mall is one of many shopping centers owned by Centennial, a national real estate owner and operator with holdings from the East Coast to the West Coast.
“One of our properties over in Connecticut actually started this last year,” Richey said. “They piloted it to see if this was something that would resonate with their community, and it did.”
The Great Summer Dash is a hybrid technological and physical scavenger hunt that mall attendees can take part in by simply scanning one of the many QR codes at the location.
After signing up, participants will be tasked with several missions to complete, with the list refreshing new ones into the fold every week.
Objectives range far and wide, taking people all across the mall to do things like playing a game of chess on the gigantic chess board outside Macy’s, finding certain shoe models in Famous Footwear, or just visiting various stores throughout the facility.
Other objectives that players may run across include simpler tasks like sharing what they’ve bought from various vendors or taking part in local arts and crafts events.
“The idea behind the whole thing (is to) get people to explore the mall, get people to understand what’s going on,” Richey said. “We have so many different local businesses here that are participating in the Great Summer Dash, so (we’re) just giving them a platform to connect with customers in a different and more playful way.”
Hunters may also find themselves walking outside of the building to visit a limited time attraction in the parking lot.
“We have, right now, the Royal Duck, which is the world’s largest bounce house,” Richey said. “By going to the bounce house, you get to earn points to win something else here at the mall.”
With each task a participant completes, they earn points and gain entries into weekly drawings as well as the final drawing that will take place on Aug. 14.
According to Richey, the gamification of the Great Summer Dash creates value not only because it offers the potential to win a prize, but because the process provides people with an experience rooted in the world outside of technology, too.
“I feel like it’s taking people out of their comfort zone in a way to explore and experience things but also in a comfortable way through technology,” Richey said.
Richey has expressed that, in her home life, she puts the same principle into practice, encouraging her kids to be active beyond technology.
Seeing the positive effects of the philosophy at home led her to bring the event to the mall as a way to benefit the people outside her own immediate family.
“Coming together to experience these challenges, I think, is what draws our community closer,” Richey said.
The Great Summer Dash stands as a template for how online activity and technology can benefit, facilitate and enhance physical world experiences and adventures.
For more information, visit shopvancouvermall.com or find them on Facebook at Vancouver Mall or on Instagram @shopvanmall.
