As one of the country's top real estate PR firms, The Wilbert Group is here to help tell your story and amplify your brand at ICSC RECon.

1. If you go to ICSC
without a PR program…

2. You’re wasting the
biggest opportunity of the year
to make a name for yourself
in retail real estate.

3. Consider the sheer number
of people in your industry
in one place.

4. 37,000 attendees
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5. 853,000 square feet
That’s 2843 football fields.

6. And those potential
clients, tenants and
financial partners are on
social media in a BIG way.

7. #RECon16
was used
19,424
times last year.

9. Great takeaway from
#RECon16: “Being an
entrepreneur is just
doing it and figuring it
out” -Bobbi Brown

10. 35,000 people come
from all over the world
to enhance and propel
the retail industry forward
#RECon16 @ICSC_RECon
Great takeaway from
#RECon16: “Being an
entrepreneur is just
doing it and figuring it
out” -Bobbi Brown

11. 35,000 people come
from all over the world
to enhance and propel
the retail industry forward
#RECon16 @ICSC_RECon
Great takeaway from
#RECon16: “Being an
entrepreneur is just
doing it and figuring it
out” -Bobbi Brown
The physical store can
provide the experience
customers crave! #Shoptalk
@shoptalk #RECon16 @
ICSC_RECon #retail #O2O

12. 35,000 people come
from all over the world
to enhance and propel
the retail industry forward
#RECon16 @ICSC_RECon
#Inspired @ #RECon16!
Networking w/ #CRE
women @crewnetwork
& working together to
change the industry.
#cwrecon16
Great takeaway from
#RECon16: “Being an
entrepreneur is just
doing it and figuring it
out” -Bobbi Brown
The physical store can
provide the experience
customers crave! #Shoptalk
@shoptalk #RECon16 @
ICSC_RECon #retail #O2O

13. 35,000 people come
from all over the world
to enhance and propel
the retail industry forward
#RECon16 @ICSC_RECon
#Inspired @ #RECon16!
Networking w/ #CRE
women @crewnetwork
& working together to
change the industry.
#cwrecon16
Great takeaway from
#RECon16: “Being an
entrepreneur is just
doing it and figuring it
out” -Bobbi Brown
The physical store can
provide the experience
customers crave! #Shoptalk
@shoptalk #RECon16 @
ICSC_RECon #retail #O2O
What are the three
elements that make
a retail gamification
strategy work? #RECon16

14. @ICSC and @ICSC_recon
have a combined 58,568
followers on Twitter.

15. More than 28,000 people
like or follow ICSC’s
Facebook page.

16. ICSC’s YouTube channel
has 210,451 views.

17. And CRE media
will be at RECon
searching for
good stories

27. And your local media
may well generate
coverage too.

28. For instance, if Atlanta is
your hometown, outlets
like the Atlanta Business
Chronicle, Atlanta
Journal-Constitution
and Bisnow Atlanta
have done wrap-up
stories in recent years,
quoting locals who
attended.

29. So how do you get in the
stories and insert yourself into
social conversations in an
impactful way?

30. HIRE
The Wilbert
Group

31. The leading CRE-focused
PR firm in the country.

32. We’ll have two people
on the ground

33. Caroline Wilbert
President, The Wilbert Group

34. Liana Moran
Account Supervisor, CRE Practice

35. Here’s our
5-STEP
approach

36. 1 Pre-Vegas buzz.

37. You want people reading
about you, thinking about you
and talking about you before
your first meeting.
1 Pre-Vegas buzz.

38. 2 Make news.

39. We will release news,
research or thought leadership
from your company to
make headlines.
2 Make news.

40. 3 Make connections.

41. We’ll secure interviews with
journalists – to generate stories
now and build relationships
for the long-term.
3 Make connections.

42. 4 Get social.

43. We will create visual content that’s
relevant and useful to your key
audiences – and share it with the
massive crowd at ICSC. We’ll engage
with the right influencers. You don’t
have time to think about social media
at RECON so we’ll do it for you.
4 Get social.

44. 5 Wrap it up.

45. We’ll make sure you’re included in
wrap-up stories about ICSC in your
home market and we’ll ghost-write
a blog about your takeaways from
ICSC. This positions you as a thought
leader in your industry and city.
5 Wrap it up.

46. Past
CLIENT
wins

47. • Focused on positioning the design firm and its
architects as thought leaders during RECon
• Released Slideshares – about the future of malls
(2015) and driverless cars (2016
• Slideshares viewed more than 3,000 times
• Generated media coverage in Globe St., Atlanta
Business Chronicle, The Commercial Real Estate
Show and more

48. As appeared in…
MAY 20, 2015 – JUNE 4, 2015
T
he American shopping
mall is dead! Or so some
would have you believe.
Since 2010, more than
two dozen shopping malls
across the country have closed. A
proliferation of news articles and
opinion pieces emphatically state
that the enclosed
mall concept is a
thing of the past.
But before we
place the final
R.I.P. placard on
the mall, it might
be worthwhile to
consider some
other factors.
Malls do not die
because the idea
of an enclosed
shopping venue
is unattractive
and obsolete.
They die because
demographics
shift, shopping
habits change,
mall owners face
financial chal-
lenges, malls
become overly
saturated with
the same stores
and merchan-
dise, or a better
retail venue is
built nearby. The
consolidation of
department stores is one exam-
ple – think about Macy’s buying
Rich’s, and maybe Belk soon as
well.
If a mall does shut its doors, it
is because it failed to adapt. As
far back as 10 B.C., people gath-
ered together to conduct com-
merce. There is something magi-
cal about being among hundreds
or thousands of other people
shopping. To illustrate that malls
are not on the downward spiral,
consider the following: 1) mall
rents are on the increase; 2) mall
sales are on the increase; and 3)
net operating income in malls
is increasing – in 2014 shopping
mall NOI recorded the highest
year-over-year growth in 14 years.
These three facts alone should
dispel any rumors about the
demise of the American mall.
No discussion about any subject
is complete without inserting the
effect millennials will have on
the mall. Conventional thought
today would purport that this
demographic will be the final nail
in the proverbial coffin. But that
would be a misguided conclusion.
In a recent study, Opinion Lab
concluded that among millenni-
als: 1) 85 percent planned to go to
a mall this summer; 2) 60 percent
say they go at least once a month;
3) nearly half rank browsing in
stores as their No. 1 reason for
going to the mall; and 4) only 10
percent say there is nothing to
motivate them to spend time in a
mall.
The retail specialty practice
group at Cooper Carry has been
involved in the design of over 5
million square feet of recent retail
projects, encompassing new con-
struction and renovation of malls
and large open-air projects.
Landmark Mall near
Washington, D.C., is one such
example. Built in 1965, the mall
lost its luster and the owner suf-
fered a financial crisis. New own-
ers are repositioning the mall to
become an urban mixed-use proj-
ect. The plan includes taking off
the roof, demolishing some retail
space and adding apartments.
The conclusion is simple – if 3.2
percent of American malls have
failed, then 96.8 percent have not.
Malls will refine or reposition
themselves as they respond to
changing demographics, shopping
habits or oversaturation of simi-
lar retailers. The bottom line is
most of the malls in trouble will
get new owners with the capital
it takes to achieve the refine-
ment or repositioning required to
remain a viable investment asset.
Those that do not will be part of
the 3.2 percent.
Ultimately, the key to keeping
the American mall alive and well
is adapting to current trends. This
means creating more walkable
and appealing space that caters
to demographic shifts and chang-
es in shopping habits.s
Is the traditional enclosed shopping mall dead?
Angelo Carusi
Principal, retail
specialty practice
group, Cooper
Carry, Atlanta
Gar Muse
Principal, retail
specialty practice
group, Cooper
Carry, Atlanta The Landmark Mall near Washington, D.C., is being redeveloped as an open-air, mixed-use center.
Traditional malls that are failing must be repositioned through creative redevelopment.

49. • Secured pre-conference
press every year for NAP,
including a Development
magazine cover before
RECon in 2016 and Shopping
Centers Today before New
York ICSC in 2016.
• Managing partner Mark Toro
did a live Facebook interview
with ICSC in 2015
• Hosted pre-ICSC Twitter chat
#RECon2016Pregame
• Wilbert posted on NAP social
throughout RECon and
nearly tripled typical monthly
engagement on Twitter

50. Development
®
SUMMER 2016
IDEAS I ISSUES I TRENDS
Commercial Real Estate Development
Reliable Bandwidth
For Office Buildings 60
The Future of E-commerce
Fulfillment Centers 66
Building for Wellness 78
The Rise of
Experiential Retail
The Rise of
Experiential Retail52
ADVANCE COPY. The final version of this article will appear
in Development magazine (summer 2016), published by NAIOP,
the Commercial Real Estate Development Association.
North American Properties’ Avalon in Alpharetta, Georgia,
offers shoppers a multitude of experiences, including open-air
fashion shows.
Photo courtesy of North American Properties and Raftermen Photo

51. • Focused in 2016 on
positioning CEO Jeffrey Bayer
as thought leader leading up
to and during the conference
• Pre-conference coverage
included interviews with
Jeffrey Bayer in Chain Store
Age, Globe St., Real Estate
Forum and The Commercial
Real Estate Show
• Announcement that Jeffrey
Bayer named an ICSC
Trustee received coverage in
Birmingham Business Journal,
Done Deals, CityBizList and
others

53. We have also
executed impactful
RECon PR programs for:

54. Want to make news at
ICSC RECon?

55. Let’s chat about it.
Caroline Wilbert
404-748-1250
404-405-6479 (cell)
cwilbert@thewilbertgroup.com