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How to budget for a shopping centre activation
A shopping centre activation budget has six groups of costs: the site, the kit, the people, getting it there, the paperwork, and a contingency on top. The site fee is the line most people price first, but it's rarely the whole cost.
Below is a template you can copy, followed by what goes into each line and the published centre rates we found, so you can sanity-check a quote. For trade show budgets, see our guide to managing your exhibition budget, which covers the venue costs a trade show adds.
The activation budget template
Fill in one row per item. Enter the cost for one centre in the first column, the number of centres in the second, and multiply them for the total. Lines that are paid once, such as design or buying the kit, go straight into the total.
| ✓ | Item | Per centre | Centres | Total | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Site fees | |||||
| ☐ | Casual mall leasing site fee | Daily or weekly rate, plus any seasonal loading | |||
| ☐ | Outgoings or levies | Some rate cards add a daily charge | |||
| ☐ | Power | Check whether the site has power and what it costs | |||
| ☐ | Centre media (screens, decals, posters) | Optional, booked separately | |||
| Build and graphics | |||||
| ☐ | Design and artwork | Usually paid once | |||
| ☐ | Display kit (hire or buy) | Hire per booking, or buy once | |||
| ☐ | Printed graphics | Extra sets if each centre needs its own | |||
| ☐ | Flooring | Often excluded from kit prices | |||
| ☐ | Furniture, screens and lighting | Check what the centre supplies | |||
| Staffing | |||||
| ☐ | Staff hours for every trading hour | Staff x hours x days | |||
| ☐ | Training, uniforms and travel | ||||
| Logistics | |||||
| ☐ | Freight to and from each centre | ||||
| ☐ | Installation and pack-down | Outside trading hours | |||
| ☐ | Storage between centres | ||||
| Compliance | |||||
| ☐ | Public liability insurance | Check the minimum each centre asks for | |||
| ☐ | Test and tag | Every lead and powered item | |||
| ☐ | Trade promotion permits and prizes | Only if you run a game of chance | |||
| Contingency | |||||
| ☐ | Contingency (% you set) | Higher while lines are unquoted | |||
| Total |
What goes into each line
#1 - Site fees
Centres rent common-mall sites through a casual mall leasing (CML) team. Some publish their rates; for the rest, ask. To find who to ask, use our shopping centre managers directory. A few published rate cards, to show the spread:
- Rose City Shoppingworld, Warwick (price list updated February 2025): a 3m x 3m mall site is $145 a day or $705 for 7 days, plus GST.
- Erina Fair, Gosford (Lendlease rate card, saved May 2025): $2,900 a week for the centre court and $2,200 for a prime site, excluding GST and $5 daily outgoings.
Budget for seasonal loadings. Lendlease's card adds 100% from 2 to 29 December, so a December week in Erina Fair's centre court is $2,900 x 2 = $5,800, plus GST and up to $35 of outgoings (7 x $5).
Some centres don't take pop-ups in peak season at all: Park Beach Plaza in Coffs Harbour (pack saved December 2024) says a blackout period applies from November to January.
Check what the fee includes. Unley Shopping Centre in Adelaide (pack saved June 2020) supplies no equipment, not even a trestle table, while Park Beach Plaza includes one table, a cloth and two chairs if you ask. Rose City sells centre media alongside its sites, such as A4 frames in its bathrooms at $110 for 14 days plus GST.
#2 - Build and graphics
Price exactly what the kit includes. Our Shopping Centre Registration Kit, for example, is available to hire from $1,271 plus GST and freight. That covers a 2.4 m backdrop at a height of 1.5 m, two printed plinths and a 1.8 m trestle table with a printed cover. Delivery, on-site installation and flooring are excluded, so each needs its own line. If you need a custom build instead, a custom brand activation typically takes us about 5 weeks to build, so allow for design and approval time on top: our brand activation timeline works back from the live date.
Hire or buy? For a one-off booking, start with hire. For a tour or a campaign that comes back next year, price buying as well, then add storage and refreshed graphics to the buy column. See our shopping centre packages, which are available to hire or buy.
#3 - Staffing
Expect to staff the site whenever the centre trades. Victoria Point Shopping Centre in Queensland (2020 guide) requires the display to be manned during core trading hours, including 9.00am to 9.00pm on Thursdays. Harbour Town on the Gold Coast (2021 guidelines) allows no more than two staff at a kiosk at once. Cost it as staff x hours x days, using the centre's real trading hours rather than a standard shift.
#4 - Logistics
Installation usually happens outside trading hours: Park Beach Plaza says bump in and out must take place outside centre trading hours, and Rose City allows set-up only from 8.00am to 9.00am. Budget for early or late labour. For a tour, add freight between centres and storage in between. On a tour, we can manage delivery, installation and take-down at every stop, store the kit between bookings, and check and maintain it.
#5 - Compliance
Every centre pack we checked that names a figure asks for public liability cover of at least $20 million, including Unley, Victoria Point, Harbour Town Gold Coast and Rose City. If your policy is lower, ask your broker what the extra cover costs. Unley, Victoria Point and Orana Mall in Dubbo (pack saved September 2025) require electrical leads to be tested and tagged. If you give away prizes by chance, add permit fees and the prize value: our guide to prize promotion approvals covers what centres ask for.
Build payment and cancellation terms into the plan. Unley and Rose City both want two weeks' written notice to cancel, or you may have to pay the full fee, and Harbour Town Gold Coast wants invoices paid at least one week before you start.
#6 - Contingency and totals
Set a contingency as a percentage of the total, and keep it higher while lines are still estimates. Re-run the per-centre column for each centre on a tour: rates, loadings, power and trading hours all change from site to site.
Send us the completed template, or call 1300 240 250, and we'll quote the kit, graphics, freight and installation lines for each centre.