Setting Nelson Mandela Square alight

"Red is hot, sizzling and represents love and joy," says Lesley Smit of the Old Shanghai Firecracker Factory Ext 40. "This festive season Nelson Mandela Square wanted to reinvent the elements of traditional Christmas deco-fare and create an overall emotive feel; taking the usual mall festive season look to a more experiential level."

Red is also the colour associated with HIV Aids awareness and with World Aids Day celebrated this month, the Red Season campaign serves a dual purpose as an awareness driver beyond red ribbons. Nelson Mandela Square has also partnered with the TOMORROW Trust, who are dedicated to financing and supporting tertiary education for orphans affected by HIV/AIDS. The Trust aims to ultimately empower individuals to become self-sustainable and grow to be proactive participants in society and the economy.

Smit believes that the Red Season campaign, one of South Africa's first experiential mall immersion campaigns, will deliver not only a positive emotive response from consumers but succeeds in its simplicity. "We are all bombarded with thousands of messages daily," Smit says, "and at times we as marketers forget that simple, subtle messages even in the form of lighting forge affinity between consumer and brand, which holds significant value."

Nelson Mandela Square expects in excess of 1.5 million festive shoppers during December.

The Red Season lighting campaign was executed by the Old Shanghai Firecracker Factory Ext 40 in association with lighting experts Thousand Watts.