What: The Mall Group has allocated 600 million baht to its year-end campaign, running from November 6 to January 10, 2027, with the aim of lifting foot traffic 20% above average levels.

Why it is important: With foreign arrivals down and per-head spending softening, the season rests on domestic visitors and families, even though foreign customers still account for around half of daily traffic at the Bangkok urban locations.

Voralak Tulaphorn, chief marketing officer of The Mall Group, describes the year-end mall sector as vibrant, as last year, supported by government and private sector events encouraging people to socialise with friends and family. She expects some Thai consumers to favour domestic travel given the global environment, while those who usually travel abroad may opt for shorter trips, leaving more time for mall visits. Spending per person may be weaker than in previous years, yet she anticipates strong visitor numbers.

Although the Tourism and Sports Ministry reported a 4.6% dip in foreign arrivals over the first ten months of 2026, she remains confident that foreign foot traffic to malls will hold up.

The Great Happy New Year 2027 campaign centres on festive experiences, entertainment, gifting and shopping promotions. The company is focusing on character marketing with the British characters Mr. Men and Little Miss, featured in immersive, multi-sensory installations, decorative lighting and interactive activities at The Mall Lifestore Bangkapi. Throughout December, concerts by Slot Machine, Tilly Birds and Taitosmith are scheduled at The Mall Lifestore Bangkapi, Bangkae and Tha Phra. Families and groups of friends form the core customer base during the year-end holidays.

IADS Notes: The year-end campaign extends the approach The Mall Group set out at the start of 2026, when it answered economic headwinds with targeted events, promotions and digital payment partnerships, noting that shoppers were visiting with a purpose and heading for food zones and family attractions (Bangkok Post, February 2026). The backdrop was already weak: slowing growth, high household debt and falling tourist arrivals had left experiential repositioning unable to fully offset soft domestic demand (The Diplomat, January 2026). On the tourist side, Thailand halved its visa-free stay to 30 days in a bid for higher-spending visitors after international arrivals fell 7% in 2025 (Inside Retail, September 2026). Bangkok malls have meanwhile become social spaces, family destinations and community anchors, where footfall generation ranks among an operator's core skills (Monocle, July 2026). The Mall Lifestore has also used M Card loyalty data to build immersive, segment-targeted campaigns, after finding that women generate over 70% of spending and shape purchases for the wider family (The Nation, August 2026).

The Mall Group targets a 20% rise in festive-season foot traffic

What: The Mall Group is following last year's Monchhichi campaign with Mr. Men and Little Miss, the second edition of its "FIRST EXPERIENCE" strategy of bringing a new character to Thailand each festive season, backed by more than THB 200 million in promotions and privileges.

Why it is important: The Mall Group is following last year's Monchhichi campaign with Mr. Men and Little Miss, the second edition of its "FIRST EXPERIENCE" strategy of bringing a new character to Thailand each festive season, backed by more than THB 200 million in promotions and privileges.

Chief marketing officer Voralak Tulaphorn frames the challenge as creating new reasons to return each year rather than making the season bigger. Under the concept "Bring Every Feeling to Life," the British characters structure a journey the group summarises as Explore, Participate, Share, Shop.

The centrepiece is Happiness Headquarters at The Mall Lifestore Bangkapi from 4 December to 5 January, an immersive installation with a Christmas tree over 15 metres tall. More than 33 artists and bands, including Slot Machine, Tilly Birds and Three Man Down, will perform from mid-December at four Lifestore branches. Signature gift wrapping and exclusive collections carry the theme into gifting.

A gachapon station offers limited-edition collectibles and coupons for purchases of THB 1,500 or more, while M Card members and partner cardholders can receive benefits of up to THB 7,600. Black Weekend (27 to 29 November) and Boxing Day (24 to 27 December) bring discounts of up to 50%. The release states a traffic target of over 15% in its introduction and more than 20% in its commercial section.

Partnerships with the Tourism Authority of Thailand, the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration and Visa position the limited collections as souvenirs for international visitors.

IADS Notes: The Monchhichi campaign that preceded this edition won Gold for Experiential Marketing and Bronze for Communications and PR at the Marketing Excellence Awards 2026 (Press Release, September 2026), then Content Marketing of the Year at the Travel Daily Media awards, where Monchhichi Christmas Town recorded a 293% rise in participation and 107% growth in spending, and the Emporium pop-up saw traffic rise 549% and sales 83% year on year. The same jury named Emsphere Tourist Attraction of the Year (Travel Daily Media, October 2026). The group's reach to foreign visitors starts before arrival, as a launch partner of THIM, the government immigration app that distributes retail coupons and privileges and has passed 600,000 downloads (The Nation, September 2026). These privileges rest on a loyalty programme of more than seven million members, now extended with co-branded payment cards, while themed attractions, gamified rewards and social-media-friendly installations are designed to lengthen dwell time and drive repeat visits (Retail News Asia, May 2026).

The Mall Group brings Mr. Men and Little Miss to Thailand for its 2027 New Year campaign

What: John Lewis has unveiled its 20th Christmas advert, a Saatchi & Saatchi campaign with the tagline "Don't give up on giving", featuring Dame Kristin Scott Thomas and Paul Whitehouse voicing Pickles the dog.

Why it is important: John Lewis is building its golden quarter message around shoppers' confidence in choosing gifts rather than around product or price, the same theme as its Gift List vodcast and its early Christmas shop launches.

John Lewis has unveiled its Christmas advert for 2026, marking the 20th year of its high-profile seasonal campaigns. The ad, created by Saatchi & Saatchi, focuses on consumers' lack of confidence in choosing a Christmas gift and seeks to bring people together across generations in a spirit of seasonal joy. It centres on "rediscovering the joy in gifting" under the tagline "Don't give up on giving".

It features Dame Kristin Scott Thomas, with Paul Whitehouse voicing Pickles the dog, set to a Sam Fender soundtrack of the Rolling Stones' "You Can't Always Get What You Want".

Marketing and loyalty director Rosie Hanley called the advert a beloved tradition that the team wanted to feel extra special this year, with a storyline many customers will relate to. She said she has resorted to putting cash in an envelope for fear of getting a gift wrong, and hopes the campaign restores the nation's gift-giving confidence.

The ad first aired on John Lewis social channels, including YouTube and Instagram, from 7.30am on 3 November, and runs on TV during Coronation Street and The Great British Bake Off that evening.

IADS Notes: The advert follows an early start to John Lewis's festive season: the online Christmas shop opened more than 100 days before Christmas after searches for "Christmas" on johnlewis.com rose 33% week-on-week following the World Cup final (Retail Week, August 2026), and the in-store Christmas shops opened 93 days ahead of the day, with gift-wrap searches up fivefold (Retail Week, September 2026). The gifting theme also runs through the six-episode Gift List vodcast, hosted by Angela Scanlon with celebrity guests and framed as entertainment rather than promotion, which is distributed across YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts and johnlewis.com alongside social cutdowns (Fashion Network, September 2026). The campaign arrives as John Lewis holds 3.09% of UK fashion and retail brand searches, up 0.03 percentage points year on year, while online-first players such as Shein, Very and ASOS lost share (Retail Times, October 2026).

John Lewis unveils its 20th Christmas advert