A two-month summer marketing drive led to a big increase in footfall and revenues at the Phoenix Plaza mall in Suzhou, Jiangsu province.

Over 700,000 shoppers visited the Suzhou Phoenix Plaza in July and August, a 16.3 percent increase compared to the same period last year.

This helped the mall increase its revenues to 27 million yuan ($4.2 million) in July and August, a 16.7 percent rise year-on-year and the highest figure for a two-month period the plaza has ever recorded.

The key to the mall's success has been the series of events it has hosted in recent weeks, including 49 parents and kids reading activities and 10 cultural lectures, which attracted more than 2,000 people.

Particularly popular were the "Phoenix Child Development Camp", which allowed kids to try out a variety of activities such as cooking classes inside the mall's book store.

The first activity of its kind in a book store in Jiangsu, the camp appealed to parents keen to help their kids develop practical life skills in a fun, friendly environment.

Another big hit was the "Sleepover at Phoenix Book Store", where parents and children could stay at the book store and read together.

This fusion of cultural experiences and traditional retail has been a calling card of Phoenix Plaza since it opened three years ago.

The strategy has helped the mall go from strength to strength, with the increasing success of its cultural events translating into greater visitor numbers and sales revenues.

As of the end of August, more than 90 percent of the stores in the plaza are occupied, the highest since it went into operation.