Simon Property Group
Bowie Town Center Opening

Situation
Simon Property Group, the largest publicly traded retail real estate company in North America, was preparing to open a new shopping mall in Bowie, Maryland. Bowie Town Center's main street design was at the forefront of a new trend in shopping venues. The trend was to make shopping more of a social activity. Simon Property Group hired Schiller Communications to generate publicity in the months preceding the opening, and for the grand opening celebration.

Strategic Thinking & Responsibilities
We developed a public relations/media relations plan for Simon Property Group. The plan included a schedule of press releases/media pitches on the architectural design, tenants, job fair, management team, and opening events. It also included: media list development, media training, talking point development, and editorial meeting arrangements.

Lisa Schiller arranged a meeting with a key city newspaper editor in spite of his unfavorable opinion of Simon Property Group. In addition, she conducted a media training session for the mall's management staff, and developed talking points for key issues affecting the mall. In addition, Lisa staffed the media room, along with Simon Property Group's director of mall public relations. Lisa generated numerous print and broadcast stories through the media pitches.

The grand opening weekend included events such as a concert by the Commodores, fireworks display, ribbon cutting ceremony, moonlight street parade with performers and arrival of Santa, prize-an-hour, children's characters, and strolling entertainment.

Results Delivered
The results were exceptional. We exceeded Simon Property Group's goals for publicity by 300 percent. The management of Simon Property Group was extremely pleased with the press coverage generated through our public relations efforts.