Shopping Centers Today is the news magazine of the International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC)
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sign, rather than the normal four. (Unlike other cities, Para- mus considered black, white and gray to be colors.) Likewise, in the Center City complex of Philadelphia, a sign company's proposal to build a pair of 3-D electronic ad structures up to 50 feet high — including one across from its Reading Terminal Market restaurant-retail hub — ran into staunch opposition from citizen groups this year. Sign company Catalyst Outdoor Advertising told the city that 70 percent of the display content would be ads and the balance public-service announcements and promotions for local nonprofit groups. In March the City Council approved the signs, calling them amenities favored both by merchants and by those living closest to them. Reading Terminal Market will receive a portion of the ad revenue. Similar scenarios are occurring throughout the U.S., ac- cording to a report from Cleveland-based law firm Tucker Ellis. "Some enlightened municipalities are backing off on tight signage requirements in the hope of raising tax revenue through increased sales," the report said. But in other ven- ues, approvals for even the most benign signs take far too long, because cash-strapped municipalities no longer have the staff to deal with them. Knowing this, tenants have started negotiating lease terms that require landlords to ob- tain such approvals, the report says. Ordinances vary widely from town to town. In Swatara Township, Pa., the 46-year-old Harrisburg Mall, owned by St. John Properties, was granted rapid approval to install a striking, 28-foot-by-28-foot LED display screen in the middle of an existing 150-foot-tall exterior sign. The township ap- proved the sign in just two weeks — versus the nine months it took to get a 90-foot-tall sign approved at the nearby Capi- tal City Mall, in neighboring Lower Allen Township, accord- ing to Kevin Coutts, a partner at New Oxford, Pa.–based W.J. Strickler Signs. In contrast to that one-message-per- day change allowed at the Texas mall, Harrisburg Mall can change its message every five seconds, Coutts says. To address rapid changes in the retail industry, several cities, including Ohio's Columbus and Worthington, have streamlined sign approvals so that they can be issued within a few weeks instead of the former three months or so, ac- cording to Tucker Ellis. Signage restrictions also vary greatly around the globe. Inside the Bory Mall, in Bratislava, Slovakia, crowds form in front of the giant, interactive common-area "sign" that is actually not a traditional sign at all: It is a multiwindow LED screen at which shoppers congregate daily, eager to post merchant reviews and to seize on the special sales dis- played, as well as post selfies and birthday messages, all by means of links to Instagram and Twitter. The mall faced no approval issues whatsoever for the screen, says Nanxi Liu, co- founder and CEO of Culver City, Calif.–based Enplug, the company that sold the digital-display software to Bory and to some 500 other retail and restaurant businesses worldwide, including several U.S. retail REITs. To address concerns that shoppers might post something of- fensive, Enplug furnishes filters that automatically edit out pro- fanity or negativity. Changeable digital signs, in fact, are quickly replacing the more expensive, labor-intensive one-off posters that malls and stores traditionally used, says Liu. "Everybody wants to be smart about how they incorporate the digital media experience into physical shopping, and we see this as a bridge; if you have 20 different retail locations in 20 different malls, you can schedule unique content and messages for each." Enplug's platform, which also allows real-time messages and social-media feedback between customers and brands in individual tenant spaces, takes just minutes to set up and can be used on virtually any digital display, ranging from big- screen TVs and dedicated social-media boards to billboards and jumbotrons. Bory Mall saw interactions on its Instagram page jump by more than 800 percent after installation, ac- cording to Enplug. Malls can also change tenant directories on all floors in just 10 minutes using the software, Liu says. "That would take hours when done by hand." Retail executives should do everything possible to encour- age a blend of digital displays and in-person experiences in their spaces, says Michael Burgess, president of HBC Digital, the digital technology unit of Hudson's Bay Co. "The more of these omnichannel customers we're able to [attract], the more value we're creating," said Burgess, speaking at the Chief Digital Of- ficer Summit, in New York City. But not all is clear sailing. Some anchor tenants are push- ing back to keep competitors' advertising from flashing across those digital boards, according to the Tucker Ellis report. In 42 S C T / J u n e 2 0 1 5 t h e W a t c h f i r e m o b i l e a p p l i c a t i o n u p d a t e s s i g n c o n t e n t f r o m a n y W h e r e , a n d a u t o m a t i c a l l y .