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BLOGS, FLOGS AND PODS

SHOPPING CENTER OWNERS ARE EXPLORING THE WEB’S WILD NEW MARKETING FRONTIERS

By Rodger Brown

For mall developers, judging the potential of the latest online technologies — blogging, podcasting, social networking, video sharing — all of it loosely grouped under the label Web 2.0 (marketing/cyberspeak for the aspects of the “second generation” of Internet usage) is like asking if the glass is half empty or half full. Some cautiously cite the opportunities for marketing to new audiences, while others warn of the potential for public relations disasters if it’s not done right.

“This is pretty identical to the conversations we were having about Web sites 10 years ago, or about collecting e-mail addresses five years ago,” said Marc Lerner, assistant vice president of digital marketing at Macerich. “Today those are no-brainers. We certainly recognize the importance of the new media frontier and Web 2.0, and we’re talking about a number of things. We’re exploring what’s out there and what opportunities are out there for us and our retailers, but we’re trying to take our time in order to do it right.”

Lerner cites the public relations problems that Wal-Mart experienced last year as the great risk of attempting corporate-sponsored projects in an online environment, where many users are notoriously anti-corporate. A blog (Web log) called Wal-Marting Across America purportedly chronicled the cross-country travels of a couple in a recreational vehicle, parking for free in Wal-Mart parking lots and writing up rosy stories about Wal-Mart employees. The blog was soon unmasked as a “flog” — a fake blog. Both Wal-Mart and its public relations firm, Edelman, were criticized in Advertising Age, BusinessWeek, Fortune and other mainstream publications, as well as in the blogosphere (a term for the network of blogs and other Internet communities) for not disclosing that the chronicles were a company-sponsored project.

“The blogosphere killed them,” said Lerner. “It’s serious. Once we’re out there, we’ve got to live with it. With any of that stuff, you stand to do more harm than good. It can have a really negative impact.” At this point Macerich is not aggressively leveraging the opportunities presented by these community-building Web technologies, Lerner says, though its executives are engaged in “high-level conversations” about it.

In contrast to Macerich’s half-empty perspective, General Growth Properties sees the new-media glass as half full. And the Wal-Mart flog fiasco notwithstanding, some harness the power of cyberspace very successfully, says Wally Brewster, General Growth’s senior vice president of corporate communications and marketing. Take the skyrocket-to-stardom experience of the rock band OK Go, for instance. The band posted a quirky, homemade video on YouTube.com, attracted millions of viewers and then won a Grammy for Best Short-Form Music Video. This, he says, is a prime model of “viral marketing” — the use of techniques that rely on the technologically magnified word-of-mouth nature and power of the Internet.

General Growth has no plans to post any quirky, one-take videos on YouTube, Brewster says. “We’re not doing blogs or podcasts, because it’s typically individuals and not companies that are doing that,” he said. But the online media’s 24-7 news cycle demands increased vigilance and collaboration between marketing and public relations teams, he says, and the firm incorporates such media in its PR to enhance the traditional marketing efforts.

“Marketing and PR are interdependent, and in today’s environment, just running an ad is no longer going to give you the impact it would have before,” said Brewster. “In the past you could create a brand around advertising. Today advertising can help create the buzz, but it’s really everything after that that is going to be what creates the impact on your consumer audience or your business partners.”

General Growth monitors social-networking Web sites to stay ahead of negative or erroneous information that could spread if left unchecked, says Brewster. “Public relations is at the top of the list in any marketing plans, because the things that are written about you, the things that are posted about you, those are the things that are going to create your brand,” said Brewster. “Those are the things that create your image. Those are the things that are going to create the excitement and the viral conversations about what’s going on at your properties and what’s going on with your company.”

Brewster acknowledges that viral marketing is a hit-or-miss game — with many more misses than hits. “It can really have an impact, but you have to figure out the DNA of that virus. You have to crack the code.”

There is a third group, though, among developers in this particular half-full, half-empty debate. And this group says the question misses the point. As far as Simon Property Group’s marketing team at Simon Brand Ventures is concerned, the glass has long since overflowed.

“We have a multitude of platforms within our group that are targeted to different demographics,” said Cathi Weiner, senior vice president of business development at Simon Brand Ventures. “We have really sought to expand our reach and our multiplatform integration while embracing the new technologies and innovations.”

Since its launch in 1997, Simon Brand Ventures has focused its marketing on the concept of “the mall as media” — the use of cell phones, text messaging, Internet video sharing and similar technologies to help create ongoing, interactive relationships, at the mall or elsewhere, Weiner says.

The five-year-old Simon DTour Live series, which promotes pop music shows for tweens and teens at the firm’s malls, is an effective use of viral marketing and Web technology, according to the firm’s marketing executives. “It’s an on-mall event that brings together whatever is hot in technology, fashion, pop culture and music,” said Tod Dalberg, Simon Brand Ventures’ vice president of business development. “The musical acts are a big draw to get [people] to come to the mall, but we also want to reach them when they’re outside the mall, so we developed a three-pronged approach.”

First, the firm created a Web site where concertgoers could download music and videos of the performances, screensavers and the like, as well as upload their own music clips. The firm also put together a MySpace page on which a Simon staffer, writing as a character named Roadie4DTour, posts blog reports from the shows. Unlike the ill-fated Wal-Mart flog, however, the Roadie4DTour effort takes an upfront approach about hosting an official page.

“We talked about the site at the event and then kids would go and post comments and videos from the event that day,” said Dalberg. “It gave a nice extension for the audience and let them come back and talk about the experience they had at the show at the mall. It was all very positive.”

The third prong was the use of text messaging to send announcements. “We allowed people a chance to text message in for a chance to meet the artists, and it worked great,” said Dalberg.

The social-networking character of Web 2.0 is new only in the technical sense, says Weiner, because the creation gathering places for like-minded people is as old as human societies. And this is at the heart of the concept of the 21st-century mall.

“We like to say that the mall is the original social network,” said Weiner. “Before the online social networks, like MySpace or FaceBook, teens used to meet at the mall. They still do, only now we use all these other tools in the toolbox to get them there. For us, using these technologies to bring people out to the mall and create a community of interest, it’s like we’ve come full circle.”