Malls Are Dying. The Future Belongs to the “Immersive Bazaar”

Earlier this year I curated a trend I called Strategic Spectacle to describe the growing use of attention-grabbing experiences to more deeply engage audiences. Recently the New York Times Magazine offered an inside look at the growth of one of the most pioneering companies in this space: Meow Wolf.

"The ideal experience-economy offerings are engaging enough to distract us from our devices but also optimized to be shared on those devices," the author of the story writes. And Meow Wolf has been growing ambitiously to deliver on this mission, with a multi-million dollar development planned to open in Vegas in December, a new themed hotel in Phoenix and a $60 million flagship amusement park project in Denver.

As a brand, this vision is so "on trend" that it is immediately worth paying attention to and putting on your shortlist to learn more about. Their growth may offer a new experience-driven model that others will use to reinvigorate public spaces like shopping malls and perhaps even retail itself.