From Deals to Decorations, the Galleria at Crystal Run Does the Holidays Big

With any holiday surprise, anticipation and excitement are key. Details must be kept under wraps, and at the Galleria at Crystal Run, where there once was a glass-and-tile elevator shaft, there now stands a twenty-foot-tall wrapped present. Keep an eye on it, and you'll be surprised. Of course, the main attraction at malls this time of year is Santa. Follow his footprints, and you'll find yourself at a giant gingerbread house in front of JCPenney. But how did the mall's decorations grow to this size?

Last holiday season, the Galleria at Crystal Run took a small concept and thought big. How big? Big enough that the commercial for Season's Biggest Gifts, as the mall's holiday campaign is called, won a platinum Hermes Creative Award from the Association of Marketing and Communications Professionals. The video, produced by ND Pro Media, conveyed that all the season's “biggest” items could be found at the Galleria. Soon after the commercial launched, the giant wrapped presents it featured began appearing in the mall itself, promoting use of #SeasonsBiggestGifts. This year, the gifts, the decorations, and the buzz will be even bigger.

2017's take on the campaign is built around the same concept as in 2016: all advertising encourages use of the hashtag and directs shoppers to a landing page on the mall's website, where they can enter for a chance to win the “Season's Biggest Gift Card”—a $500 Galleria shopping spree. Whether by visiting the page or searching the hashtag, customers will see a list of holiday sales going on at the Galleria, where you're sure to find the season's biggest gifts, because the elevator has been turned into one.

Vinyl graphics, produced and installed by Fastsigns of Upper Saddle River, cover two-thirds of the elevator shaft's glass backing. If the present they form looks familiar, that's because it's the same gift from the mall's award-winning advertising. Inside the elevator itself, the interior window bears a graphic of a nutcracker. When the elevator goes up, the nutcracker appears to pop out of the present. When it goes down, he hides inside.

Of course, even the biggest gift you're giving this year probably isn't to that scale. But read the present's bow and search #SeasonsBiggestGifts, and you're sure to find a deal. Or maybe leave it up to Santa. There's a lot he can make in his new gingerbread workshop.

Santa's workshop is famous for his helpers, and the handy workers who designed and constructed this sweet set are mall staff from the marketing and operations departments. Construction took over three months, so feast your eyes, but don't sink in your teeth.

“When you're a kid, the holidays are a big deal,” said Ethan Weber, the Galleria's marketing director. “The excitement, the presents, the decorations, it all seems bigger. These attractions are for the children, but we want to recapture some of that excitement for the adults, too.”

For more information on Season's Biggest Gifts, to stay up to date on sales, and to enter for your chance to win the $500 holiday shopping spree, visit https://www.galleriacrystalrun.com/seasonsbiggestgifts/.