Woodland Mall Von Maur Wing

In summer 2017, Woodland Mall embarked on a $100 million redevelopment journey that was completed in fall 2019. At a time when the national media was focused on the death of traditional brick-and-mortar retail, Woodland Mall’s parent company, PREIT, doubled down on West Michigan and announced a significant investment that would bring first-to-market brands and destination retailers to the region’s premiere shopping mall.

Sabo PR developed the road map that would keep the project in the news – and in front of the media – throughout more than two years of construction. The redevelopment culminated with the grand opening announcement of the new Von Maur wing. Our final media push was to garner local media placements to generate excitement and interest in the new retailers and restaurants and, ultimately, get shoppers in the door.

We developed a comprehensive media strategy, leveraging press releases, targeted outreach to journalists and influencers and interview coordination to keep a positive buzz going leading up to the grand opening.

We offered a pre-opening “sneak peek” of the new wing to local media, which allowed us to coordinate tours with 13 outlets. This included Spanish-language outlets, prominent publications such as the Grand Rapids Press and Grand Rapids Business Journal (now Crain’s Grand Rapids Business), as well as The GR Guide, an influencer/blogger.

Media responded enthusiastically, rewarding Woodland Mall with 26 positive print and online placements and 23 broadcast mentions by 11 different outlets. These had a combined potential reach of more than 5 million people, based on each outlet’s estimated unique website visitors per month, broadcast viewership data and circulation numbers.