TOP AWARD:
Linda Austin, general manager and marketing director for Shasta Outlets in Anderson, recently received a top promotions award from a national trade association.

KLP Properties, doing business as Shasta Outlets in Anderson, and its regional marketing manager Linda Austin were recently featured in a national trade publication, Value Retail News, for a promotional campaign last year that raised more than $8,000 for charity and featured city councilwoman Melissa Hunt sitting on a restaurant roof for more than 50 hours.

Austin was one of four outlet marketers honored by the travel trade organization Shop America. For Austin’s efforts in promoting the shopping center, two weeks ago she received in the mail a framed SASI (Shop America Salutes Innovation) award that Austin said is her industry’s top honor.

The “Melissa on the Roof” campaign at the Shasta Outlets received free publicity on Dec. 1, 2007, from as far away as Los Angeles with an article in the L.A. Times and a 20-second news feature segment aired Dec. 4, 2007, on KTLA-TV, Channel 5, also in Los Angeles.

The promotion was a bit of a fluke, Austin remembers.

As a result of all the free publicity, customer traffic at Shasta Outlets was up 46 percent for the three-day event, Melissa Hunt raised $8,164 for PlusONE Mentors and was dubbed the organization’s “Supporter of the Year,” and Mary’s Pizza Shack, which donated 10 percent of their sales during the 50 hours raised $3,200 of Hunt’s total for PlusONE Mentors.