Why Phoenix Malls is betting big on collaborations to drive footfall, recall, and revenue

Tira’s Korean Beauty Festival. Armani Beauty’s Diwali celebrations. Sephora and Fenty Beauty’s Christmas installations. Over the festive months, Phoenix Malls has become a hub for high-impact brand collaborations. For the premium shopping destination, such partnerships are not mere add-ons; they are central to its growth strategy and a key focus area this year.

According to Mayank Lalpuria, director – marketing (North, Central and West), The Phoenix Mills, the group works closely with almost the entire organised retail ecosystem in India, partnering with brand teams to identify where their values and brand ethos align. The goal is to create a distinctive, experience-led value proposition by blending the two.

“Globally, brands are increasingly moving towards collaboration. It’s clearly defining this decade, and that philosophy strongly guides our approach at Phoenix. We’re always looking to offer something unique, an experience customers haven’t already seen,” Lalpuria says.

Phoenix's collaboration with Armani Beauty for Diwali, which reinterpreted the celebration through Armani's global design language, serves as a prime example. 

“Using familiar Indian elements like the marigold, but reimagined through Armani’s aesthetic, allowed us to blend Indian culture with a global luxury brand. The response was extremely positive, not just in terms of appreciation, but also in business metrics and sales performance,” he adds.

These curated collaborations help Phoenix attract both loyal shoppers and new audiences. Tira’s Korean Beauty Festival last month, for instance, brought in a younger consumer cohort.

“These brands and products are difficult to access through regular retail formats. Offering them as a curated experience gives consumers a compelling reason to visit,” Lalpuria explains.

Such activations also drive cross-category consumption. Visitors may come in for skincare or makeup but often end up exploring fashion, food and beverage, or lifestyle categories, eventually lifting overall basket sizes.

Once inside the mall, the ecosystem takes over: shopping, dining, and entertainment work together to extend dwell time and spending. Over time, this also builds brand equity for the mall itself. Phoenix becomes associated not just with transactions, but with global trends, culture, and lifestyle aspirations.

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Not all experiences are anchored to in-mall brands. Phoenix has also hosted destination-led and cultural showcases. At Palladium Mumbai, it hosted Spectacular Saudi to promote tourism to Saudi Arabia.

At Phoenix Mall of Asia in Bengaluru, Toyota Kirloskar Motor unveiled the Toyota Experiential Museum (TEM), a cultural and lifestyle hub blending Indian philosophies of mindful living with Japanese culture and advanced technology.

“These aren’t just branding presences; they’re immersive experiential zones,” Lalpuria says. “They add novelty and a sense of discovery to the mall visit.”

With Saudi Tourism, Phoenix worked closely to market the pop-up aggressively over the weekend. “The idea was to drive incremental footfall, energise the mall, and make it the place to be that weekend,” he adds.

There was also a clear commercial upside. The brand leased space, generating incremental revenue for the mall, while Phoenix benefited from large-scale amplification.

“Saudi Tourism brought in 10–12 major celebrities, such as Kareena Kapoor Khan, Kartik Aaryan and Arjun Kapoor, who promoted the destination, with our mall featured as the activation venue. It created city-wide buzz and reinforced the idea that something new is always happening at Phoenix,” Lalpuria says.

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For Phoenix, however, it’s consistency, not one-off activations, that delivers long-term impact. The group focuses on building and scaling its own long-term intellectual properties, such as the Beauty Festival, Holiday Land, and the larger umbrella platform, India Celebrates at Phoenix.

These IPs give consumers a clear expectation: whenever they visit during a holiday or festive period, there will be a defined theme and experience.

While the core IP remains consistent, it is refreshed annually. Last summer, Phoenix partnered with global kids’ brands like CoComelon, Paw Patrol, and Baby Shark, turning the season into a major draw for families.

“It is not a one-off activation. Customers know that every summer, Phoenix will deliver a familiar yet distinctly new experience. Short-term transactional marketing may drive momentary attention, but it doesn’t build recall. Consistency does,” Lalpuria says.

Collaboration extends to marketing as well. While brands run their own national, zonal, and city-level campaigns, Phoenix amplifies these efforts through mall-led initiatives. The broader objective is to position Phoenix as a community hub and lifestyle destination, driving sustained and relevant footfall.

“When brands collaborate with malls, the impact is amplified because we bring deep local knowledge. We understand city dynamics and consumer behaviour at a granular level,” Lalpuria says. “Time and again, brands that collaborate closely with us deliver stronger results.”

One example is the launch of Uniqlo at Palladium Mumbai in November 2024. A joint marketing push between the brand and Phoenix resulted in the store recording Uniqlo’s highest sales in India during the launch month.

The same destination-first thinking informed the launch of Gourmet Village at Phoenix Palladium, Mumbai, a 100,000 sq ft F&B destination spread across two floors, housing 25 restaurants. Rather than promoting individual outlets, Phoenix marketed the zone as a collective dining destination.

“A customer may visit one restaurant once every six to eight weeks. But when they know there are 25 dining options along with cafés and multiple formats, it becomes a habitual destination rather than an occasional visit,” Lalpuria explains.

Founded in 1905 as a cotton textile manufacturer in Bombay, Phoenix Mills entered real estate in 1987 with High Street Phoenix in Lower Parel. It launched Palladium Mall in 2009 in the same complex and today has 13 malls across Bengaluru, Chennai, Pune, Lucknow, Indore, and Bareilly.

Its marketing calendar adapts to local market realities. In Tier 2 cities like Ahmedabad, weekends are largely family-centric. “Family- and kids-led experiences perform exceptionally well. Activations such as CoComelon, Baby Shark, and immersive formats such as Van Gogh often sell 2,000–3,000 tickets even before launch,” Lalpuria says.

Tier 1 cities, however, require a different playbook. Socialising involves nightlife, friend groups and niche interest communities, driving a stronger focus on music, bar-led formats, and specialised experiences.

“While the brand promise stays consistent, success lies in hyper-local curation, aligning experiences with the audience and cultural context of each city,” he adds.

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Despite the surge of e-commerce, Lalpuria sees no threat to the mall ecosystem. “E-commerce in India took off around 2012–13, yet Phoenix has continued to grow, delivering double-digit or strong single-digit growth across our malls. We haven’t seen any negative impact,” he says.

He believes Indian retail is still in its early growth phase. “In Grade A malls, brands are competing aggressively for space. Offline retail will continue to grow, driven by rising consumption, spending power, and the evolution of malls into experience-led destinations.”

Infrastructure, he adds, will further accelerate this shift. The upcoming Metro Aqua Line in Mumbai will cut travel time to Phoenix Palladium to about 30 minutes from across the city. Phoenix has already introduced free shuttle services from Metro Worli Naka and Science Museum stations.

In Pune, while the metro station is just 100 metres from the mall, Phoenix is evaluating shuttle services to further ease last-mile access. Beyond connectivity, initiatives like Phoenix Assist, which offers porter services, power banks, and other conveniences, aim to remove friction at every touchpoint.

“Our approach is holistic, so that visiting a Phoenix mall is effortless, intuitive, and rewarding,” Lalpuria concludes.