Toronto The Well | 174.03m | 46s | RioCan | Hariri Pontarini

I don't think it's related to a holiday campaign for a few reasons (for reference, I work in advertising so this is actually something I know about!)

Simons does an annual holiday campaign with very specific art direction and photography - they're pushing their cozy knits and a lot of the design assets feature this minimal box with bow graphic, and the chunky type treatment used on all of their main headlines. I can almost guarantee that if the billboards were part of a larger holiday campaign they would have to feature the same creative for consistency. All of these holiday campaign assets have a very specific look and feel that I'm just not seeing in the digital billboards here.

There is no CTA pushing people to the website since there is no local store, and none of the copy reflects the rest of their holiday messaging. Nor does the imagery align with the rest of their holiday assets.

Ad space is incredibly expensive, and I don't understand why Simons would purchase billboard space as part of a holiday campaign and not use their holiday creative (which, again, is very expensive to produce)

The billboards at the well look like generic brand awareness assets - if they wanted people to shop online there would be specific messaging pointing the viewer to visit the website, shop online etc. I can't fathom a reason they would develop and produce these assets, purchase space for them, and run them in this very specific location where ad impression numbers are probably not yet known due to the complex not being open and operational. Why not at Yonge and Dundas where there are thousands of holiday shoppers out every day?

I think there's more to this, but again, I really don't believe this is part of a holiday campaign based on the inconsistencies with the creative alone.


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DavidCapizzano said:
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Their ongoing TV campaign uses none of these visuals too, and is just a generic commercial. I think they’re just trying to create brand recognition as they did when they first opened at Square One. The ads were just as simple.

Brandedcities, which operates the digital billboards at the Well operates in all of Simon’s markets, so it’s not surprising to me that they would run a campaign with them.

I’d love to be proven wrong, but there’s not enough evidence to support that.
 
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I don't have cable, so I can't speak to the other campaign pieces. I'm also not saying this is definitive proof of a store opening here - I just think it's a very weird strategic choice to buy ad space at the well when branded cities has way more desirable and impressionable media options available in other parts of the city. My only guess is that it's because it was purchased as part of a package media buy and the location was included among others.

I do find it interesting that Simons currently has Toronto based Broken Hearted Love Affair as their ad agency producing their major brand campaigns (my guess is a lot of the photography/design work is done in house)

Usually Quebec brands stick with Sid Lee or Cosette to keep the creative production within the province.
 
There is no physical space in 'The Well' to accommodate anything close to a Simons.

The buildings will also not be ready in time for any kind of pop-up for this holiday season.

Unless several lessees have agreed to have their leases terminated, I don't see how to make it work......the entire plan for the 'The Well' would have to be reorganized.

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The Warner Music Space and Indigo both have permits issued with those respective brands explicitly mentioned.

The September leasing plans don't show anything close to enough space available, anywhere.
 
pw20 said:
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Just a guess, but I recognize two spaces from that floor plan likely operated by Concord Group from Calgary. The specific restaurants look to be the second locations of:
I've been to both and really enjoyed them, especially for how great the quality and service is for the price. If they are the same, I look forward to similar offerings.
 
I am still kind of flabbergasted that Riocan decided that Arcadia Earth was a good fit for this complex, eating up almost 18k square feet on the upper floor. Maybe when that inevitably flops we'll get a Simons lol.
 
DavidCapizzano said:
I am still kind of flabbergasted that Riocan decided that Arcadia Earth was a good fit for this complex, eating up almost 18k square feet on the upper floor. Maybe when that inevitably flops we'll get a Simons lol.
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The world's smallest Simons?

I don't think they'll be building anything under 80,000ft2 ever again.

Could surprise me, but I don't think so.

They've been gravitating to larger stores, mostly.

The Pt. Claire Quebec one is the smallest recent one, I think at 91,000ft2
 
Red Mars said:
Nov 17, 2022

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What about Sweat and Tonic (might they back out?) and who is in the office space above it?
The upper mall level plus 3 or 4 floors would yield about 100,000-120,000 sq ft.
That terra cotta (?) facade would make a fine department store!
Has anyone seen any escalators delivered to that building?

Or the Konrad space and floors above?
In earlier leasing plans, the Konrad space was to be fitness/entertainment space combined with the floor above.
 
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