Location data fuels mall giant Simon’s new pitch to advertisers
Simon Property Group, one of the largest mall operators in the U.S., has more to sell advertisers on than its existing network of almost 4,000 digital screens. That includes location data from shoppers who use its Wi-Fi networks.
Simon said last week it had launched Simon Media Network, a retail media network helping brands reach consumers across its more than 200 shopping centers. The company — which generated $6.4 billion in consolidated revenue, according to its annual report to shareholders — said it will provide insights based on visitation, transactions and consumer-engagement data.
Unlike Simon’s previous work with advertisers, the difference is that Simon is letting brands target people who shop in its malls in other environments and use new measurement capabilities based on Simon’s consumer data.
As part of using the Wi-Fi network at a Simon property, consumers consent for their geolocation data to be used for collecting, storage, use and sharing of geolocation data for security and traffic-counting purposes,” according to its terms of service. Those purposes include advertising by Simon or other vendors based on shoppers’ physical presence at a specific shopping center or their location within the property, the document states.
“We have tremendous insight, consent-based, in terms of location behavior,” said Jared Blechman, chief revenue officer at Simon Property Group. He oversees the company’s growth efforts outside of leasing, such as media, advertising and experiential marketing.
Blechman told Modern Retail the company is selling the Simon Media Network more as an “audience intelligence product” than simply a screen network, allowing advertisers to identify and engage desired audience segments and measure how that campaign performed in terms of incremental visits and transactions. They can run campaigns in the digital screen network, experiential campaigns in the centers, and campaigns in off-platform media environments such as connected TV, digital and social, according to Blechman.
He explained that the company meets with the advertiser before a campaign to determine their desired audience, KPIs and success metrics, and measures against a control group as the campaign runs to determine whether it drove incremental visits or transactions.
The company also tracks consumer behavior through its Simon+ loyalty program, its ShopSimon online marketplace, other digital channels and third-party providers, Blechman said. This, he added, gives advertisers a broader view of the consumers coming through its properties than retailers’ media networks based on individual transactions. Simon claims to see more than 2 billion annual visits globally.
He said the company hopes to add new forms of measurement leveraging its scale and consumer intelligence to both retailers in its centers as well as other advertisers, such as financial services and travel and auto companies.
“It’s really allowing advertisers a more complete view of consumer behavior across a retail ecosystem of shopping, dining, entertainment and lifestyle experiences to then activate campaigns and measure the business that it drove, both from an incremental visit and transaction perspective,” Blechman said.
The platform offers a managed-service model where the company can activate ads on behalf of brands as well as a self-service model. “We wanted to build a product that was very flexible and to meet the advertiser where they are, and on all the channels that they want with the same measurement capabilities,” Blechman said.
More companies such as retailers, mall operators and entertainment chains have started to monetize their physical assets through advertising businesses. Entertainment chain TopGolf also just launched a new division that ties together the company’s existing sponsorship platform with a retail media business and licensing practice.
Eric Lamb, svp of enterprise solutions for out-of-home advertising tech company Vistar Media, said this is because advertisers want to leverage the fact that a large share of commercial transactions is still happening in the real world. ICSC found this year that 91% of consumers shopping for back-to-school spent or expected to spend in physical stores. ICSC also said 91% of shoppers during the last holiday season also reported making purchases in physical stores.
“I think this is a very natural trend that we’re going to see with any sort of real estate owners, retailers, people that own physical spaces,” he said, adding that he expects hotels, gyms or coffee shops to start to make similar moves in retail media. “Any physical environment where the owner has some level of relationship with the people walking in, and they have data about them, there’s an opportunity to influence them while they’re there.”
Lamb said the mall category has been a top-five category at his company for brands for more than a decade, given that they reach a broad population at the moment of their purchase, including high-end, luxury shoppers. “Pretty much every major category sees a place there,” at malls, Lamb said. “Most digital advertising is pretty fragmented in terms of where you can reach people. Malls are quite the opposite.”
The Simon Media Network is the “next evolution in how we’re connecting brands with high-intent consumers across our centers and beyond,” Blechman said. “This product is going to be something that’s very valuable for all advertisers that are looking to demonstrate what a campaign not only did, but the business that it drove.”