Pepsi-Cola Co. and Visa USA are shopping around.
The two sponsor General Growth Properties’ Cash Back for Schools program in 58 malls. Shoppers turn in receipts to rack up points for their favorite school. Schools compete with each other to earn cash or sponsor-donated prizes. (Each mall decides how many schools will win and what prizes they get, depending on funding via local sponsors.) Shoppers who use Visa get double points. Schools have gotten an average $16,000 from the program.
Visa and Pepsi fund the platform (including P-O-P and ad slicks) that General Growth gives mall managers, who execute independently. Newspaper ads and notes in PTA, school, and church bulletins support.
Pepsi has sponsored the program for two years; Visa is new this year. Both are key marketing partners of Simon Property Group, General Growth’s biggest competitor. That doesn’t bother General Growth.
“We differentiate ourselves with programs specific to our malls,” no matter which brands tie in, says a spokesperson. General Growth asks for exclusive deals, but “marketers want as much saturation as they can get, so it’s not usually seriously considered.”
Marketers like Pepsi set multi-year deals that give malls a commission and marketing funds in exchange for exclusive vending rights.
Vendors compete on marketing budgets to get mall real estate, but malls rarely have to compete. “Keep in mind malls are in limited supply, unlike ads in magazines,” says Pepsi senior marketing manager-customer marketing Kristina Mangelsdorf. “We consider malls as marketing partners, not merely media. Malls are important to us because we can reach a dense teen audience there. The malls are very eager to have exclusive programs, but also like the non-exclusive programs as long as they drive traffic and revenue.”
In fact, Simon helps Pepsi get pouring rights in competitors’ malls, says Karen Corsaro, president of Simon Brand Ventures. “It’s just good relationship building” and no risk for Simon since malls rarely compete geographically, she says. Simon looks for more than cash from partners: “We want events and increased sales, but also partners who can help us turn customers into long-term relationships.”
And one good partnership often leads to another: Visa introduced Simon to the NFL with a mall-based promo using its NFL sponsorship.
Now that’s team spirit.
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