I've never really liked shopping malls to be truthful, they don't have a lot of soul or individuality to them, and the handy car parks (read: always busy and extortionately expensive) inevitably bring out the worst in people when trying to get in and out.
Therefore, i'm not particularly saddened to read in this interesting article in the NY Times, that with the recession in full force in the US, and malls and large out of town stores closing at a rapid rate, and new and interesting uses of the vast space that they accommodate (the USA has six times the retail square footage of Europe) are being proposed.
The crux of this change in usage is that the malls have the opportunity to move from shrines of pure consumption (retail) to spaces where the community and brands have the opportunity to create centres of learning and promote the sharing of ideas (services).
So, whereas in the recent past only the largest flagship stores of multinational brands (for example Apple), have had the capital to invest in expensive retail space purely devoted to workshops and services, the abundance of cheap, accessible space has opened up the opportunity up for greater brand funded learning or services.
So for example; could Google create a Digital School in malls for senior citizens or those with limited access to the Internet, or could Health Insurance companies create free branded gyms for its members to stay healthy and keep their premiums low?
Last week, B&T Magazine released their findings on the industry’s best websites for 2008. Naked Communications was judged the most creative, scoring 9 out of a possible 10. Naked easily beat creative hot-shops BMF and Three Drunk Monkeys, as well as traditional multinational advertising agencies Leo Burnett and Saatchi & Saatchi. 
Nasty words like media fragmentation are keeping marketers awake and prompting even the most cautious executives to dip their toe in the shimmering waters of brand entertainment. Brand entertainment is a powerful potion for avoiding the pitfalls of the marketing new world. After all, we live in a culture where people expect to be entertained. All. The. Time. One of the limitations of advertising is that people rarely find it entertaining.
In our industry I seem to meet many intelligent, balanced, rational and 'presentable' individuals. Even in the creative department of many advertising agencies, the people charged with creating break-through ideas are, by and large, normal.
Ask a fishmonger what to have for dinner and he will suggest ‘fish’. Go to an advertising agency and ask what’s the solution to my problem and they will tell you ‘an ad’. As long as advertising agencies are financially dependent on production, you’ll continue to get ads as the solution.
Listen up, forget asking consumers to watch, to listen, to passively consume. The race is on to get them to create, to produce, and to participate in brand ideas. The ‘Remix Generation’ (Remixers) are far more demanding on brands than any other generation. Remixers can be of any age, but more likely to be the Millennials or Gen Y, who have a lust for creativity and contribution to popular culture. 
