Royalmount, Montreal’s newest retail and lifestyle destination, is preparing to celebrate its first anniversary this September, and it’s doing so with a bold marketing campaign aimed at keeping momentum high following a landmark opening year.
The newest creative campaign: “The Art of Living, Redefined” celebrates how the shopping destination is dedicated to providing Montrealers a redefined shopping experience. The campaign is a visual and creative expression of Royalmount’s philosophy and brand DNA.
In an interview with Retail Insider, Marie-Michèle Thibault, Vice President of Marketing for Royalmount, said the newly-launched campaign is a continuation of the energy and excitement that accompanied the centre’s debut.
“The main goal was actually to really create a buzz after our opening,” said Thibault. “During the opening, there were activities around Royalmount and around Christmas as well. But we wanted to make sure that we continue the buzz and also bring information that inform people in certain items that might not have been really clear from the beginning.”
That includes showcasing features that go beyond retail.
“We wanted people to understand that we have an amazing offer in the urban park with our restaurant,” she explained. “Also understand a little bit more the concept of different spaces in Royalmount. So not only a mall with stores, but also those experiences that we would bring to life, activities, programming, and also, again, all the offer in the urban park.”
The campaign is running from June through the holiday season, featuring original content created in-house.
“We need a big campaign and we want to realize it by ourselves, with our team and their amazing talent,” said Thibault. “Let’s do a campaign that can showcase all those elements, showcase restoration, showcase arts, showcase all those fun things, and really play with this tagline that we created.”
Royalmount officially opened its doors in September 2024 and is now home to a mix of retailers, restaurants, and entertainment experiences. The destination will celebrate its first anniversary on September 5.
“It’s going be fun to see the before and after from when we opened to where we are now,” said Thibault.
According to Royalmount, leasing is progressing steadily.
“We’re between 75 to 80% tenant open,” Thibault noted. “We still have great openings coming our way.”
She added that one of the main differentiators over the past year has been the addition of new restaurants.
“When we opened, we were more around the 45–50% (open rate), and a lot of those tenants are restaurants. So that’s what again brought our site to life with the RH (gallery) opening as well and all those fun concepts.”
Royalmount’s development is far from finished.
“There’s more phases to come and there’s more projects,” Thibault said. “We will announce some fun stuff in the upcoming month. But the goal is still to have Royalmount being a district and really bring community together. So it is not something that will stop as is. There’s for sure other projects coming and making it bigger and bolder.”
Consumer behaviour is also helping shape Royalmount’s evolution.
“In the past months, we focused a lot more on our local audience,” said Thibault. “But we were quite happily surprised around the Grand Prix weekend with the tourists coming in. It’s definitely something that we will focus on a little bit more next year.”
Royalmount’s core traffic continues to come from the greater Montreal area.
“There’s a lot of people coming from immediate surroundings. So we’re talking Westmount, TMR, but also downtown Montreal. And we see a little more of South Shore and North Shore coming as well, as they come and experience our restaurants, discover the site, and decide to come back.”
Public transit is also playing a key role in Royalmount’s growth.
“We’re tracking our traffic coming from the Metro is growing,” Thibault added. “This is something that was really important to us . . (It) really brought this ease of access that we were looking for.”
“A lot of our events and programming, we’re pushing for people to come with the Metro and it works well because that’s something that people enjoy.”
With its first year nearly complete, Royalmount’s team is focused on refining its offerings, building community traditions, and remaining a dynamic entertainment destination in the heart of Montreal.
“There’s a lot. I mean, it’s our first year, so we tried and tested a lot of different things,” said Thibault. “We still want to make things different and bold, events and really fun activations for people to come and discover Royalmount, but also not just come for shopping, but really entertainment and really have a good time here.”
“We see both, for sure star events that will become reoccurring and hopefully become traditions for our community.”
Related Retail Insider stories:
