It’s now November, and the holiday shopping season is already underway, with Black Friday, the official kickoff of the Christmas shopping season, less than a month away. Folks will soon be steaming to the malls of America to shop for gifts, regardless of how tough things are with the economy.
There are a number of ways to advertise to mall shoppers, including traditional static signage, but as with so many other areas of out-of-home, digital is playing an increasing role.
The chief advantage of digital advertising generally is the ability to distribute ads across a network of locations from one source, and to update those messages on the fly, and that's particularly valuable in mall advertising, allowing marketers to update their copy at will to promote sales and special offers.
Another advantage is the ability to target ads by time of day and/or day of the week. A mall restaurant might promote a lunch special from 10 a.m. until 1:30 p.m., then change out copy for the afternoon to advertise a happy hour special.
Ads can even be targeted by the weather.
Imagine there's a snow storm moving in. You have a ski shop, and zip, you change your ad to tout a sale on cross-country skis.
To find out how to get your client’s message in malls, read on.
This is one in a Media Life series on buying out-of-home venues. They appear weekly.
Fast Facts
What
Advertising at malls to holiday shoppers.
Who
Around eight major vendors handle the majority of traditional static and digital inventory at U.S. malls, making it possible to place ads in malls across the country going through just one or several vendors.
There are also a number of other vendors that handle more alternative elements, such as ads in the windows of vacant stores, ads on stairs or ads projected onto walls or floors.
How it works
If you’ve been to the mall at all recently, you know there are plenty of opportunities to reach mall shoppers through advertising. Perhaps the most common is the standard 4-by-6-foot static ads on information kiosks in the common areas, typically sharing space with maps of the mall and the like.
Other options include advertising in the windows of vacant storefronts, putting ads on mall stairways, and even projecting ads on walls and floors in high-traffic areas.
But as we noted, the emerging format is digital signage, and it is available in many forms.
Digital in malls hasn’t grown as fast as one may think, for a couple of reasons. One is that it’s expensive to install networks of digital screens, and another is that advertisers are still on a learning curve when it comes to finding the most effective ways to target shoppers with digital signage.
That said, the mall scene is decidedly more digital than it was even five years ago.
One common form of digital signage is a stack of 65-inch plasma screens in 8-foot-tall enclosures. These can display full-motion video, with or without sound, as well as flash animation.
Another is 42-inch screens placed above a mall’s you-are-here map. These play a mix of content and ads, with or without sound.
Digital screens can also be found at customer service desks, in mall food courts and within mall stores. In a store, it might be a screen over the cosmetics counter featuring spots for various makeup products.
Markets
Advertising in malls is available in any market where there is a mall.
Numbers
There are about 1,200 enclosed malls in the U.S., according to the International Council of Shopping Centers. Total U.S. foot traffic during the 2009 holiday season (November and December) is expected to decline 4.2 percent this year versus last, according to ShopperTrak, which counts shopper traffic.
How it is measured
Advertisers use overall mall traffic data supplied by the malls to estimate how many impressions their ads generate.
At this point, there's no standardized method of measuring impressions of individual ads.
What product categories do well
Frequent mall advertisers include retail stores, snack foods, beverages, movie studios, fashion brands, video game publishers, packaged goods, pharmaceuticals, credit cards and personal care products.
Demographics
Demographics vary by mall. An Arbitron study commissioned by EYE, the mall ad network, found that 57 percent of mall shoppers have an annual household income of $50,000 or more, and about 20 percent are at $100,000 or more.
A separate Arbitron/EYE study found that 85 percent of teens visit malls at least once a month, and 37 percent visit at least once a week. Teens typically spend one hour and 56 minutes at the mall during each visit.
Making the buy
Pricing varies, but CPMs for mall campaigns are generally in the $4.50 to $5 range.
Who’s already advertising at malls
Recent or current mall advertisers include Foot Locker, Skechers, Bose, Columbia Pictures, Kraft, Macy’s, MasterCard, Nike, Oakley, T-Mobile, Visa and Dell.
What they’re saying
“Digital can respond to promotions and price points. It can also respond to the time of day or the day of the week. A mall may get different shoppers on the weekends, or older walkers on weekday mornings. And it can even be reactive to weather; if it’s the first snowfall of the year, retailers might want to promote ski pants and boots.”
– Jodi Senese, executive vice president of marketing at CBS Outdoor.
Web site info
CBS Outdoor
https://www.cbsoutdoor.com/media/malls
Smartlite
http://www.smartliteusa.com
Van Wagner
http://www.vanwagner.com
Clear Channel Malls
http://www.clearchannelmalls.com
JC Decaux
http://www.jcdecauxna.com
OnSpot Digital Network
http://www.onspotdigital.com
EYE
http://www.eyecorp.com
Adspace Networks
http://www.adspacenetworks.com
UpStares Media
http://www.upstaresmedia.com
Inwindow Outdoor
http://www.inwindowoutdoor.com
