How a character visit became a week-long family destination, and the start of a Kids Holiday Club.

At a glance

• +19% peak foot count growth on the final Saturday
• 6% average turnover growth for participating tenants, against 1.34% for the centre overall
• 1.13 million TikTok impressions
• 3,000+ children engaged

The brief

Cresta Shopping Centre sits in a school-dense part of Johannesburg, surrounded by middle-to-high income families and five other major malls. It had a strong entertainment line-up, including Ster-Kinekor, Jozi Karts and Be Up Park, which had just opened, but families didn’t necessarily think of Cresta first. The October school holidays are the most contested weeks of the year for family footfall, and Cresta wanted to win them and give parents a reason to come back.

The idea

Ster-Kinekor released the Gabby’s Dollhouse movie on 26 September 2025, and Cresta had secured a live visit from Gabby herself. The property has serious pull with young families: a No. 1 Netflix series, more than a billion YouTube views and a place among the top five preschool toy brands.

We built the Gabby’s Dollhouse Tea Party around that visit, turning a global brand into a hands-on experience children could walk into. It also became the launch of the Kids Holiday Club, a platform for promoting Cresta’s entertainment and dining offering to families, designed to be reused across school holidays.

What we did

The experience

Children entered a life-sized replica of the dollhouse through a themed magic archway, so they stepped into Gabby’s world rather than watching it. Inside, activity zones were built around the show’s characters, including MerCat’s Science Lab with slime and bubble stations. Gabby appeared for a meet and greet as part of the Gabby’s Dollhouse Costume Tour (Cat-tastic Road Trip).

To get families in early, the first 150 visitors each day received a surprise “Dollhouse Delivery”, echoing the show’s unboxing moment.

Driving sales to tenants

Families received passports to stamp at tenant stores selling Gabby-themed merchandise, with rewards such as Krispy Kreme donuts for completing them. This sent shoppers into stores, not just to the activation.

Reaching parents

Parents aged 25 to 34 were the primary audience, so the campaign was led by TikTok. Nano-influencers, relatable family-focused creators, shared authentic recommendations, backed by paid social on TikTok and Facebook. In the centre, banners, posters and floor vinyls carried the theme throughout, and the Cresta website ran a dedicated event banner. We also distributed flyers to more than 30 schools in the surrounding area.

Results

Foot traffic and sales

• Foot count rose 7% year on year in the opening days of the campaign.
• Growth peaked at +19% on the final Saturday, 11 October.
• Participating tenants grew turnover by an average of 6%, ahead of the centre’s overall October turnover growth of 1.34%.
• Toy Kingdom reported turnover up 19% year on year, and Estoril Books up 11%.

Social reach

• 1.13 million TikTok impressions, about 2.8 times the 408,696 target.
• 4.77% organic engagement rate.
• R8.29 CPM, roughly 64% below the R23.00 benchmark.

On the ground

• More than 3,000 children took part.
• Families responded well to the educational and creative activities, and the experience generated plenty of social-ready moments.

The outcome

The Tea Party launched the Kids Holiday Club as a repeatable framework for school-holiday activations. It showed that a major brand moment, built into a hands-on experience with retail cross-promotion, can deliver footfall, tenant sales and a stronger family reputation.