Stunning Christmas Lighting at Short Notice: Part 2
In our post on Stunning Christmas Lighting at Short Notice, our team in Germany gave us some great ideas and input on the top three products that they would recommend if you’re running a little late in your Christmas lighting planning this year.
Today, we’re heading to the far north to get input from MK Illumination Russia, and then into the southern hemisphere to get some ideas from MK Illumination South Africa.
As a reminder, we asked them to recommend three products that would help customers with last-minute Christmas needs and what they cut-off date for last-minute orders might be. Here’s what they said.
Mikhail Zelensky
Business Development Manager, MK Illumination Russia
When time is running out, I tend to suggest a combination of MK Illumination’s Ice Lite, String Lite and 2D motifs.
The Ice Lite range is suitable for almost all types of buildings and atriums of shopping and business center, adding instant festive cheer. String Lites are flexible and can easily be wrapped around just about every type of structure, which allows customers to incorporating lighting into an existing space without investing in expensive frames on which to hang the lights. Finally, although the 2D motifs are simply products, they look great, are easy to install on most vertical surfaces, and they help to create the right sort of atmosphere for the season.
We usually have all three products in stock locally, which means that it’s easy for us to supply these at the last minute if needed.
When it comes to cut-off times, this really depends on the complexity of the customer’s requirements. We do everything we can to find a solution, but if it’s really late in the year, we mightn’t be as flexible as we usually are. In the past, we’ve decorated private houses as late in the year as a couple of days before New Year’s Eve.
Lee Rasmussen
Managing Director, MK Illumination South Africa
When customers come to us at the last minute, I try to combine our Ice Lite 114 and String Lite 120 with an appropriate “showstopper”, if we have one in stock in our warehouse.
I’m a big fan of both Ice Lites and String Lites because they are easy to install, create a festive feel in no time at all, and deliver great results overall. They give great “bang for your buck” – stunning effects and a reasonable budget. Ice Lites are great for structures whereas String Lites are brilliant for greenery – trees, bushes, you name it. Whenever possible I like to incorporate at least one lighting feature that I call a “showstopper” – something that turns heads – and when last-minute customers are lucky, I might just have some showstoppers in our warehouse that are right for them.
We did this a few seasons ago for Sandton City when one of their planned festive lighting displays fell through and they needed something special to transform the space in their magnificent Protea Court. We had a 9m Eco Tree in our warehouse that we had originally developed for our stand at the SACSC Congress weeks before, and it just so happened that this showstopper was perfect for that space!
When it comes to the question of “when is it too late”, all I can say is that anything is possible given time. When we’re sort on time, we will always do our best to help with whatever we have in stock, but this varies year to year, so there’s no fixed cut-off time.
That’s it!
We hope that you’ve been inspired by the MK Illumination teams in Russia and South Africa. Feel free to get in touch with us if you’re struggling with a last-minute festive lighting project and keep an eye out for our next instalment of “Stunning Christmas Lighting at Short Notice”.