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TECH TOOLS HELP MARKETERS SPREAD THE WORD

By Kerri Linden

Marketing these days is no longer just about print ads or radio spots, and developers are forced to find increasingly creative ways to get shoppers and tenants into malls. Some are using technology to do this and are seeing big results. Portable USB drives, while not brand–new technology, are proving to be valuable tools for disseminating marketing information. McWhinney, based in Loveland, Colo., has used the portable drives for more than a year to distribute marketing materials, including handing out hundreds of them at ICSC’s Las Vegas conference in May. The drives were preloaded with press releases, site plans, brochures, videos and renderings and given out to passersby at McWhinney’s booth. “People really do like the electronic applications,” said Wendy Ellis, vice president of marketing for McWhinney. “There’s less to carry around and flip through, and it’s faster. At Las Vegas, we would scan the badge to get the person’s contact information and as soon as they walked away, we e–mailed them a PDF of the information they requested, instead of taking time and effort to FedEx a leasing package out.” More than the ability to give out a large amount of information in a tiny digital form, McWhinney found environmental benefits. “This is really about sustainability,” said Ellis. “We’re not wasting paper with huge press kits and printing tons of brochures.”

For its part, Taubman Centers used technology to get kids and moms into its centers for back–to–school shopping. Using the Web site Findyourgo.com, kids could make a shopping wish list and then turn a photo of themselves into a talking avatar — a virtual cartoon representation. The avatars can have customized clothing, hair and background, and users can record a personal voice message or a prerecorded message that tells parents why they need the items on the list. Kids then send parents an e–mail with the avatar’s video message, which comes from the user’s personal e–mail address. Parents can view the child’s wish list, as well as get information on the Web site about back–to–school sales at Taubman’s centers.

“The program has well, well exceeded our expectations,” said David Goldberg, vice president of sponsorship and marketing at Taubman. “The open rate — parents opening the e–mails kids send — was through the roof.” The site uses a newly released Auto Photo technology from Oddcast, a company that creates speaking avatar technology. When the program was released in August, Taubman hosted in–mall events that featured people called Pixman with LED screens suspended over their head attached to a backpack telling shoppers about the program and directing them to a kiosk where they could create their own avatar. “We’ve taken marketing to the next level,” Goldberg said. “It really mirrors what we do in the mall space.”