01/01/08 - ICSC’S: SHOPPING CENTERS TODAY

PARKING LOTS BECOME BILLBOARDS

Shopping centers are turning their parking lots into advertising vehicles, through a marketing concept called parking stripes — strips of vinyl used as parking divider lines and containing printed messages. “The parking stripe is a relatively new venture and is targeting retail environments as an advertising venue,” said Greg Parsons, director of specialty leasing at Developers Diversified Realty Corp.

“Products, consumers and brands are all located in a shopping center, so it makes sense.” The stripes, which cost about $50 each, can help advertisers sell a product before a customer even enters the shopping center, says Parsons. “An advertiser can target a brand or a concept when the person is walking into the mall, to touch them right when they’re already influenced,” said Parsons. Advertisers are interested. Nationwide Insurance has used the stripes in Glimcher Realty’s Weberstown Mall, in Stockton, Calif. Seven of New Hyde Park, N.Y.–based Kimco Realty’s shopping center parking lots in the Northeast began advertising the television show Desperate Housewives this fall. And DDR has the stripes at eight of its centers in the Midwest and on the West Coast. Golden, Colo.–based Parking Stripe Advertising, created the product. The adhesive sticker stands up to extreme heat and cold and does not fade from exposure to the sun. At the end of the contracted ad period, the stickers are removed and disposed of or recycled. “The stripes can benefit the mall as an additional revenue stream,” Parsons said. “It’s a grassroots type of exposure that’s a new and different opportunity.”

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