‍How a consistent, community-first approach to staffing transformed three Auckland shopping centres into destinations people genuinely want to visit.

Client: Scentre Group
Brand: Westfield
Industry: Retail
Locations: St Lukes, Albany, New Market
Duration: 2023 – Present

The Partnership

Destro has partnered with Scentre Group, the team behind Westfield in New Zealand, for three consecutive years, delivering ongoing brand activation staffing across three Auckland centres: St Lukes, Albany, and Newmarket.

What began as a staffing brief has grown into a genuine long-term partnership, built on consistent delivery, deep familiarity with the Westfield brand, and a shared commitment to creating experiences that bring communities back through the doors again and again.

The Objective

Scentre Group's goal is straightforward but ongoing: give people more reasons to visit their shopping centres, and keep them coming back.

Every activation is designed to drive foot traffic, not just for Westfield, but for the retailers inside. More visitors through the door means more opportunity for the stores that call these centres home.

A consistent thread across all activations is Westfield's app. Destro Brand Ambassadors are always on hand to engage customers and encourage sign-ups, offering simple incentives like an extra hour of free parking and early access to upcoming events. It's a low-friction way to keep the community engaged beyond each individual visit.

Activations span a wide range of cultural and seasonal moments, from Lunar New Year and Diwali to Christmas, Easter, Halloween, and everything in between, ensuring the programme feels relevant to the diverse communities each centre serves.

The Challenge

Running activations across three centres, repeatedly, over multiple years, presents a challenge that isn't immediately obvious: consistency.

When the same communities keep showing up to the same events, familiar faces matter. A revolving door of brand ambassadors means constant retraining, inconsistent energy, and missed opportunities to build the kind of rapport that turns a one-time visitor into a regular.

Early on, Scentre Group flagged this directly. The client wanted the same trusted people, not a new team every time. For Destro, that meant building something more structured than a standard staffing roster.

Our Approach

To meet this need, Destro created a dedicated Westfield Talent Pool. A curated group of Destro Brand Ambassadors who were regularly available, genuinely enthusiastic about the activations, and selected specifically for their ability to engage warmly with the public across a wide range of event types.

Recruitment for the talent pool focused on people who were bubbly, confident, and comfortable working both independently and as part of a team. Experience in performance or amateur dramatics was a bonus as it translated directly into the kind of lively, playful energy that works in a retail environment, particularly for family-focused events.

One of the most important recurring activations is Monty Mornings. This event occurs twice a month at St Lukes and monthly at Albany, featuring Monty the monkey mascot alongside a dedicated mascot minder. Monty has become a recognisable and beloved figure across the centres, a familiar face that kids look forward to seeing and families plan visits around.

Beyond mascot activations, the Destro team has supported Scentre Group across a broad programme including:

• Cultural celebrations: Lunar New Year, Diwali, Matariki, Italian Festival, Mid-Autumn Festival
• Seasonal events: Christmas, Easter, Valentine's Day, Mother's Day, Halloween
• Interactive activations: Craft zones, Plinko, Spin to Win, Roll the Dice, Cornhole, Cookie Decorating, Lego Week
• Community and tourism initiatives: Tourism Shuttle Flyer Drop, Live Nation partnerships, NZFW support, customer feedback surveys
• Holiday programming: School Holiday Craft Zones, Disney Activity Stations, Back to School activations

Systems & Integration

As the partnership has deepened, so has the way the two teams work together. Destro moved beyond shared spreadsheets and onboarded the Westfield marketing team directly onto its internal booking platform.

This gives the Scentre Group team the ability to submit bookings directly, track progress in real time, and view live staffing calendars, removing any friction from the process and allowing both teams to focus on delivery rather than administration.

It's a small operational detail that reflects something bigger: a working relationship built on mutual trust and a genuine investment in making things run well for both sides.

Results

Three years in, the numbers reflect a partnership that has only grown stronger.

• Across this last year, we saw over 167 activation days at Westfield Albany, over 181 activation days at Westfield St Lukes and over 108 activation days at Westfield Newmarket
• 38 campaigns delivered across three centres, covering cultural, seasonal, interactive, and community events
• Consistent staffing from a dedicated talent pool, with specific Destro Brand Ambassadors requested back by name by the Westfield team
• Overwhelmingly positive client feedback, including direct calls to recognise standout ambassador performances
• Measurable improvement in workflow and consistency since the introduction of the Westfield Talent Pool
• Westfield team onboarded to Destro's booking platform, streamlining communications and real-time scheduling
• Partnership continues and is actively growing across all three Auckland centres

Three years. Three centres. Thirty-eight campaigns. The kind of partnership that only works when both sides are genuinely invested in showing up.

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