MrBeast sets traffic record at American Dream
Top YouTube poster MrBeast might have just told Don Ghermezian, “Open my first burger joint and I’ll give you the biggest crowd you ever had.”
Because that’s what he did.
When Jimmy Donaldson — whose MrBeast persona runs videos like “Quit your job and I’ll give you $100,000” — appeared at Ghermezian’s American Dream to cut the ribbon at MrBeast Burger on Labor Day, an unheard-of crowd from all over the United States packed the joint.
Chain Store Age then asked the data-driven traffic counters at Placer.ai to do a traffic tally for that day at American Dream and the numbers turned up beastfully Brobdingnagian.
Visits on Labor Day rose 325% above the baseline for daily visits at the mega-mall from September 1, 2021, to September 8, 2022. The concourse-cramming crowd was 32% larger than the previous daily high set at American Dream.
“The launch shows the unique power of well-executed, omnichannel-oriented strategies that fuel the powerful reach of digital marketing channels with offline payoffs,” said Placer.ai VP of marketing Ethan Chernofsky. “This result should push landlords to think differently about the tenants and concepts they look to build around. Events like these can move the needle for co-tenants as well.”
Many retail brands — even those with strong online operations such as Walmart — draw more traffic in their physical locations than they do online. An analysis performed by Placer.ai in August found that offline unique visitors outnumbered unique online visitors by 29% at Costco, 21% at Target, and 18% at Walmart.
These results, Chernofsky posited, present retail center operators with an opportunity to leverage their properties for marketing and advertising value — something American Dream succeeded at historically on Labor Day and aims to continue to do by installing a women’s pro hockey team on its ice rink.
“This can possibly change the way we think about who anchor tenants are,” Chernofsky said.