Beyond Digital Silos: How Shopping Centers Win With Holistic Marketing

By Angela Sweeney, Executive Director, Pylot

When marketing components work in harmony, shopping centers thrive

Let’s face it — marketing for multi-location businesses like shopping centers has never been more challenging. Each property serves its unique community while needing to maintain consistent brand standards with other portfolio properties. Meanwhile, shoppers are bouncing among Google searches, social media, your website and the physical in-center experience, with the expectation that everything connects seamlessly.

Imaginuity, a performance marketing company specializing in multi-location businesses, has spent two decades helping shopping center marketers tackle this increasingly complex challenge. Our unique Pylot website development platform combined with our integrated marketing services creates a powerful digital ecosystem where everything works together — creating customer experiences that convert browsers to shoppers and shoppers to loyal customers.

What we’re seeing across the industry is clear: When marketing initiatives are well integrated, everything improves. When they aren’t, opportunities get missed, processes become inefficient and marketing dollars get wasted. It’s that simple.

From Chaos to Clarity: Aligning Every Touchpoint in the Shopper’s Journey

Think about your typical shopper’s journey: They might hear about your shopping center on Instagram from an influencer, check Google for your hours, read a few reviews, visit your website for store information and look for events — all before setting foot in your property. Each touchpoint either builds off another or creates friction due to misalignment.

Here’s where things often break down. Your website is updated to highlight an exciting store opening, but your social media doesn’t mention it. Your Google Business Profile shows different hours from your website. Your paid ads promote events that are hard to find on your site. Ultimately, your shoppers are confused by these disconnects and make other plans.

Sound familiar? You’re not alone. Many shopping centers we work with initially come to us with similar pain points. In most organizations, different marketing functions operate separately — sometimes even handled by different agencies. This creates inevitable gaps that drive inefficiency and waste time and money.

While these disconnects have always been problematic, recent advances in artificial intelligence have raised the stakes dramatically, transforming how shoppers discover and evaluate shopping destinations in the first place.

The AI Search Revolution

Remember when Google simply provided a list of websites matching a search query? Those days are gone. Now, AI-driven search engines analyze information across the web to provide direct answers to user questions right at the top of results.

What does this mean for your shopping center? When someone searches “shoe stores at Village District” or “restaurants near Eden Prairie Center with outdoor seating,” AI systems are working to provide the best answer — not just links to explore.

Here’s the catch: These AI systems are looking for consistency. If your store directory shows different information from your Google Business Profile, if your hours vary across platforms or if your events calendar isn’t properly structured, you’re significantly less likely to be featured prominently in search results.

This is where Imaginuity’s integrated approach becomes invaluable. Our local listings services ensure your shopping center’s information remains consistent across all touchpoints; our marketing services team helps you craft content that answers the exact questions your potential shoppers are asking; and your center website, built on Pylot, provides a delightful shopper experience.

The Essential Building Blocks of Marketing Success

At Imaginuity, we believe successful marketing comes down to a set of key components that, when properly integrated through our services and Pylot ecosystem, create greatly improved results.

Brand Strategy That Works Locally

Every successful business needs clear positioning and messaging that works at both the corporate and/or local levels. Are you the luxury destination? The family-friendly community hub? The convenient everyday-shopping stop? Our team helps you establish a strategic foundation that guides all marketing decisions while allowing for local market adaptation.

Creative That Captures Attention

In today’s visually saturated environment, your business needs distinctive creative that stands out. Imaginuity develops flexible, creative frameworks that maintain brand consistency while allowing for local customization — perfect for those businesses where each property has its unique character and customer profile.

SEO Built for Performance

Our approach to SEO goes beyond basic keywords to create a comprehensive, AI-informed strategy. The Pylot platform’s architecture is specifically designed for shopping centers, with location-specific pages, proper structured data markup and content structures that search engines love. The result? Your properties appear more prominently when shoppers are searching for what you offer.

Integrated Media That Works Together

Instead of treating paid search, social media, display, SMS and other channels as separate initiatives, Imaginuity orchestrates them as a unified ecosystem. This means consistent messaging, shared audience targeting and coordinated timing across channels — all driving traffic to well-aligned landing pages on your Pylot-powered website.

Why Your Website Platform Makes All the Difference

While marketing channels continue to proliferate, your website remains the hub of your digital presence — especially for shopping centers where store directories, events, promotions and location information are critical to driving visits.

The Pylot platform was developed specifically to address the unique challenges of shopping center websites:

• corporate template sharing that allows for fast, cost-effective deployment across multiple properties
• location-specific customization capabilities that preserve brand consistency
• intuitive and interactive store directories and wayfinding tools that shoppers love
• event integrations to manage ticketing
• SEO architecture designed for visibility
• mobile-first design for shoppers on the go

The true power of Pylot emerges when combined with Imaginuity’s integrated marketing services. When your paid media campaigns drive traffic to optimized landing pages, when your social content connects seamlessly with your website experience and when your local SEO strategy ensures shoppers find exactly what they’re looking for — that’s when the magic of integrated marketing happens.

Making the Shift: Practical Implementation

Transitioning to a truly integrated marketing approach doesn’t happen overnight, but it doesn’t have to be overwhelming either. At Imaginuity, we guide shopping center clients through a streamlined process:

1. First, we assess your current marketing ecosystem, identifying disconnects and opportunities.
2. Then, we establish a unified strategy that addresses both corporate and property-level needs.
3. Next, we develop and implement a beautiful Pylot website, expertly configured for your specific requirements.
4. Finally, we activate integrated marketing campaigns that drive qualified traffic to your website and property.

The result? Shopping centers typically see dramatic improvements in key metrics within 90 days, with continuing optimization driving long-term growth in both digital engagement and physical center traffic.

Case Study: A New Way to Influence Holistic Marketing Execution

While implementing a holistic marketing approach creates a strong foundation, the most forward-thinking shopping centers are taking integration even further: using innovative technologies to bring their digital content to life in ways that captivate shoppers across every touchpoint. When JLL Retail Property Management faced slowing sales at its properties despite consistent traffic and the challenge of creating sales promotions in very different markets around the U.S., Imaginuity and our partner agency The Dealey Group worked with JLL to create the shopping center industry’s first virtual AI influencer, Cindy, a perfect embodiment of a hub-based, integrated marketing approach.

Cindy, “a virtual shopping bestie,” was deployed across 13 shopping centers, appearing consistently in organic and paid social media, email campaigns, SMS messaging, website content and in-center signage. All touchpoints drove shoppers to “Cindy’s Picks,” a reimagined sales and events page on center websites showcasing retailer offers alongside trend recommendations. The results were remarkable: traffic to sales pages jumped 188%, web traffic from new site visitors increased 316%, physical foot traffic rose 6% and the campaign generated $2.5 million in incremental revenue. Additionally, the Cindy activation is a finalist at this year’s ICSC MAXI Awards in the Integrated category. By sharing development costs across multiple properties, the campaign delivered an astonishing 2,221% ROI — proving that innovative, integrated approaches don’t just perform better, they’re more cost-effective, too.

—Ashlyn Booth, executive vice president of marketing and director of property marketing for JLL

The Path Forward: From Fragmentation to Integration

The shopping center marketers who will win in today’s rapidly changing marketing environment aren’t necessarily those with the biggest budgets; they’re the ones who ensure every marketing dollar works harder by creating a truly integrated ecosystem where each element and tactic enhances the others.

That’s what Imaginuity and Pylot deliver. By combining deep expertise in shopping center marketing with technology specifically designed for multi-location companies, we help properties transform their digital presence from a collection of disconnected tactics into a cohesive ecosystem that drives real results.

The proof is in the performance our clients see every day: higher search visibility, increased website engagement, more efficient marketing spend and — most importantly — more shoppers visiting their centers.

Ready to see what a truly integrated approach could do for your shopping centers? Let’s connect at the ICSC LAS VEGAS event and explore how Imaginuity and Pylot can transform your marketing ecosystem. Email Angela Sweeney at asweeney@imaginuity.com.