The Short Version

• Shopping center sponsorships are moving beyond banners and logos as property teams look for ways to integrate brands into events, amenities and shared spaces.
• The most effective activations connect a sponsor’s goals with the property’s customer experience, whether the objective is awareness, engagement, app downloads, website traffic or direct sales.
• Beyond driving revenue, sponsorships also can help properties offset the cost of amenities and placemaking features, from shaded seating and bike racks to charging stations, play areas and water features.
• Property teams need to manage sponsorship density carefully so activations feel intentional rather than cluttered, especially in high-traffic areas.

Sponsorships Become Part of the Shopping Center Experience

The line between advertising and placemaking is blurring as shopping center sponsorships evolve into immersive experiences, from branded events to photo-friendly holiday displays. “Sponsorships are not about banners and logos anymore,” said Pacific Retail Capital Partners executive vice president of local leasing and business development Cindy Czech. “It’s about branding, and it’s really about integrating the guest experience at our centers.”

Pacific Retail’s Colonie Center in suburban Albany, New York, for example, recently partnered with DeNooyer Chevrolet to bring a play park to the mall’s center court. The activation features oversize games of Connect 4, Jenga and cornhole that encourage dwell time and offer a fun, family-friendly interaction with the brand.

Sponsors are looking for opportunities not only to advertise but also to connect with people, added Czech. “We try to design environments where brands become a part of how people spend time, not just what they see,” she added.

Property marketing teams are developing a broad — and growing — inventory of sponsorships that include amenities, services and special events, from phone-charging stations and bike racks to main stages for a summer concert series and holiday ice skating rinks. “The best experiences for both the brand and the shopping centers are when it feels integrated into the environment,” agreed Oxford Properties vice president of marketing Lucia Connor. “You really want it to be fully integrated, and that involves working closely with the brands to ensure that the design, the experience and the customer journey feel intentional.”

The Spring in Bloom floral display at Oxford’s Square One in Mississauga, Ontario, runs this year from March 20 through May 11. The event, sponsored by local tourism group Visit Mississauga, has become a popular photo spot. The activation was an ideal match because the center and the tourism board share a goal to draw people from outside the traditional trade area.

 

 

 

 

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Turning Sponsorships Into Amenities

Property teams are looking for ways to integrate sponsors into their properties that creatively go beyond putting up signs or logos. For example, Lehigh Valley Reilly Children’s Hospital’s sponsorship of a Town Square with an interactive fountain at Centennial’s Promenade Saucon Valley in Center Valley, Pennsylvania won Silver in the 2024 ICSC Visual Victories Awards in the Most Creative Media/Sponsorship Campaign category. Before Centennial took over management of the property, the ongoing sponsorship arrangement consisted of banners promoting the hospital. Centennial saw an opportunity for more creative branding, such as layering the hospital’s brand colors and logo throughout the space and creating playful decals on the sidewalks.

The hospital’s colors also appeared on new shade structures for the tiered seating surrounding the fountain. “We integrated their brand colors with the environment in a way that just made sense,” said Centennial executive vice president of business development and revenue Bil Ingraham. Shade covers had been a top request from visitors to the property, but instead of buying them, management leveraged the sponsorship to cover the cost, he said.

In this way, property teams are looking at sponsorships not just as revenue drivers but also as strategic ways to enhance properties and in some cases, offset the costs of providing services and amenities. A doggy day care, for example, might sponsor dog-waste stations at a dog-friendly property, for example, or a bike shop might sponsor a bike rack.

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Those sponsorships can pair with related events like sponsored pop-ups to promote bike safety or pet health. Property teams then can promote those events on social media to drive traffic. “Ultimately, we think of sponsorships as part of the overall placemaking strategy and not just an add-on,” said Czech.

Matching the Sponsor to the Space

The starting point for a successful sponsorship is understanding what a brand is trying to achieve. “We ask a lot of questions at the outset to try to curate a space and an experience,” said Czech. What is the brand trying to accomplish? Is it looking to drive sales, to raise awareness, to drive traffic to its website or to spur app downloads?

For example, Wendella Boats sponsored a children’s park-style play space, including a water feature, at Pacific Retail’s Yorktown Center in suburban Chicago. The activation, which promoted Wendella’s architectural boat tours on the Chicago River, included branded games. Displays featured a QR code, giving Wendella a way to track engagement.

The boat tour company loved the idea of a water-themed sponsorship. When the property team presented the idea, Wendella’s response was: “We can do that?” Marketing teams can act as creative forces to educate sponsors about what they can achieve in retail settings, Czech said.

Successful sponsorships also can enhance the customer experience and generate repeat opportunities. Swarovski was one of the first to sponsor a themed holiday tree at Oxford’s Yorkdale Shopping Centre in Toronto. Other brands since have engaged in similar activations. Dior Beauty recently created a custom holiday tree and a brand activation at Yorkdale that included perfume samples and free gift wrapping for customers who made purchases.

Preventing Sponsorships From Becoming Visual Noise

Property marketing teams do need to approach sponsorships thoughtfully, as too many sponsorships and too much signage can result in clutter and noise that may feel overwhelming to shoppers. Marketing experts agree that the keys are to align the right brands with the right spaces and places, to limit density in high-traffic areas and to rotate activations to keep things feeling fresh. Post-mortem analyses of sponsorships’ performances also help property teams understand what works and what doesn’t for each sponsor and for the property, she added.

Connor noted: “By working with the brands, we have a better understanding of what success looks like for them, which in turn helps a shopping center elevate that experience.”