The UK loves shopping malls - but does it love the advertising? Titan Outdoor, which sells advertising at eight out of the top ten UK malls, commissioned leading qualitative research agency Lawes Consulting to investigate shoppers' habits and attitudes, and how this impacts on the advertising they are exposed to.

Research objective was to investigate the effectivness of advertising in shopping malls compared to advertising on the highstreet.

Four focus groups of shoppers who shopped at least occasionally at both malls and high streets were compared over two malls and two high streets in Kent and Birmingham. Consumers were observed on their shopping trips, to analyse habits and decision patterns. Heart rate monitors were used to assess mood states or levels of 'arousal' during shopping. Over 500 in-street interviews were taken to quantify the qualitative insights and measure recall of, and reaction to, a spoof advertisement that was created for the study.

Results showed that people generally came to a mall because they were actively seeking to purchase and were more likely to take action based on relevant advertising, compared to people on the highstreet. On average, respondents heading off to the mall were more than three times as likely to be looking to buy specific products than when in the high street and admitted to frequently treating themselves with unplanned purchases. There was a 70% preference of malls over high streets with ABC1s more than twice as likely to prefer the mall experience, and to feel more relaxed.

Mall shoppers are actively out to purchase and more likely to take action based on relevant advertising. Mall shopping is an aspirational activity - respondents expected to see current fashion brands and the latest styles. This, combined with hours wandering malls for inspiration, suggests that mall ads can act as a signpost as to what is new and desirable. Quantitative research showed that ad recall for the spoof ad was three times greater in the mall than on the high street. Mall shoppers were also more likely to remember details of the advertising they saw in malls.