Real Life Is the Media Channel

By Chip Harding, Executive Vice President, Simon Media & Experiences

Barry opened the first edition of IRL Today with a simple idea: the most powerful connections still happen IRL (In Real Life)! I’ve spent my career on that premise, and I’d argue we’re finally at the moment when the industry’s tools have caught up to the truth.

IRL has never been more relevant as a marketing channel. In a world where consumers are increasingly overwhelmed by digital messages and AI-created ads, real-world environments offer brands something uniquely valuable: The ability to connect with people where they are actually living, working, traveling, shopping, and spending their time.

This is especially powerful in malls and large retail destinations, where people are not simply passing through. They are spending meaningful time, discovering brands, socializing, enjoying experiences, and making purchase decisions. These environments bring together attention, intent, and proximity to commerce in a way few other media channels can replicate.

Last week we launched Simon Media Network, a commerce media platform built on what happens across more than 200 Simon destinations, billions of visits, and more than $100 billion in annual commerce. That’s the part people notice. The part that matters more is what sits underneath it.

Most retail media networks are built around a single retailer and a closed ecosystem. Ours is built around how people actually spend their time on a Tuesday afternoon or a Saturday morning. We have thousands of retailers covering every interest and lifestyle — luxury and value, fashion and beauty, home and decor, tech, fitness, jewelry, entertainment.

When consumers come to a Simon center; they shop three or four stores; they eat; they buy in one store and discover in another. That whole arc is the signal, and it tells a brand not just what someone bought, but where their attention went and what moved them to act. Combining our own digital and social channels, Simon+ loyalty, ShopSimon.com, and the IRL environment itself lets us close the loop from exposure to visit to transaction. Marketers have been asking DOOH for that proof for more than a decade. We can now put it in front of them — nationally, by market, or at a single property, depending on what the business objective calls for.

It’s not just about the addressable digital audiences. We’re continuing to expand our screen footprint as well, pushing past 3,800 screens today, with more spectaculars and more screen networks being installed across the portfolio, each new installation making the network more useful rather than just bigger. Placement, dwell time, and creative quality do the work here. A screen in a Simon common area reaches someone who chose to be there, in a good mood, with intent already formed and a store fifty feet away. That is a fundamentally different impression than an ad served to a scrolling thumb, and we should price and measure it as such.

Underneath all of it is something simpler than any of the technology: people still choose to spend their Saturday somewhere, usually with people they like. That choice is the asset. Everything we build has to be worth showing up for.

That’s the conversation I’m looking forward to at the Global DPAA Video Everywhere Summit on October 13. The theme — Real Connections — is the right one. I’m curious how others are handling attribution and outcomes, how AI is changing creative production for place-based inventory, and where in-store retail media is headed as more retailers build their own capabilities.

I’ll also have the opportunity to share more about Simon Media Network, including what we’re building, how we’re thinking about the opportunity, and what it can mean for brands looking to connect the physical and digital worlds. The medium is growing quickly, continuing to innovate, being rigorously transparent, and building in measurement from the outset is how we ensure continued growth.

I look forward to seeing everyone on October 13 at Chelsea Piers, Pier 60, NYC, from breakfast through cocktails, where I’d love to hear what you’re building or what your campaign goals are, and I’ll share more of what we’re learning.