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Outdoor Advertising Integral Part of Simon's Media Strategy

INDIANAPOLIS and BATON ROUGE, La., Feb. 22 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Simon Brand Ventures (SBV), the business-to-consumer arm of Simon Property Group, Inc., (NYSE: SPG) and Lamar Advertising Company (Nasdaq: LAMR), the third largest outdoor advertising company in the U.S., have announced an exclusive partnership to develop, place and market free-standing, static outdoor advertising units at Simon's vast portfolio of shopping centers across the country.

This new venture will create another pillar in SBV's overarching media strategy to position Simon as a cost-effective option for major brand marketers and advertisers and a desirable alternative to traditional advertising.

The first step in the carefully orchestrated strategy was Simon's engagement of Arbitron and Scarborough to embark on a series of new initiatives to showcase the value of Simon Shopping Centers as a media platform. Last year, Arbitron conducted a study on the efficacy of Simon Malls as an advertising medium and issued Simon Malls Shopper Profile (http://www.simon.com/arbitron /), which outlines the considerable reach and effectiveness of Simon's place-based media. More recently, Simon engaged Arbitron and Scarborough to develop reach and frequency metrics for the shopping center industry. The goal is to enhance the planning and buying of advertising in shopping centers through the creation of mall-centric reach and frequency applications, offering planners and buyers the ability to assess unique shopping center visits, the frequency of mall exposures and to reach specific demographic audience segments.

Under this partnership, Simon and Lamar will seek to build a portfolio of traditional static billboard and billboard type units, including the development of new billboard structural concepts designed to enhance and complement the shopping centers' current architecture and aesthetics. Using Simon's vast national footprint of shopping center real estate, the partnership will seek to place these units in high traffic, premium- advertising locations.

"Simon is by far the biggest and best in the shopping center industry, clearly demonstrated in their size, reach and quality of their portfolio of shopping centers," said Brent McCoy, executive vice president of business development for Lamar. "Their unprecedented consumer base and premier market locations are ideal places for marketers to advertise -- the sites in and around where consumers are going to shop and spend. With 2.2 billion shopper visits a year and the best real estate locations in the nation, we see enormous potential in this venture and are pleased to be partnered with the best the industry has to offer."

"Lamar is clearly a dominant force and a major player in the outdoor industry," said Stewart Stockdale, chief marketing officer of Simon Property Group and president of SBV. "The choice to partner with Lamar derives from the fact that, not only are they the third largest outdoor advertising company in the nation, but they are the only organization in the top three that is solely focused on outdoor advertising. This partnership clearly demonstrates Simon's desire to work with the best in the business to develop new and better focused alternatives in advertising using shopping centers as place-based advertising venues," he added.

About Simon Property Group

Simon Property Group, Inc., headquartered in Indianapolis, Indiana, is a real estate investment trust engaged in the ownership, development and management of retail real estate, primarily regional malls, Premium Outlet(R) centers and community shopping centers. The Company's current total market capitalization is approximately $37 billion. Through its subsidiary partnerships, it currently owns or has an interest in 296 properties in the United States containing an aggregate of 202 million square feet of gross leasable area in 40 states plus Puerto Rico. Simon also holds interests in 51 European shopping centers in France, Italy, Poland and Portugal; 4 Premium Outlet(R) centers in Japan; one Premium Outlet(R) center in Mexico; and one shopping center in Canada. Additional Simon Property Group information is available at http://www.simon.com .

About Simon Brand Ventures

Simon Brand Ventures (SBV), Simon's business-to-consumer arm, has pioneered the transformation of shopping malls into a medium where consumer brands can build one-on-one relationships with shoppers who make approximately 2 billion visits to Simon Malls each year. Simon's vast franchise of market- leading shopping centers nationwide provides SBV the foundation to monetize the distribution system through numerous consumer ventures. SBV has engaged in a number of consumer business initiatives, including the Simon Giftcard(TM), launch of Simon platform programs such as Simon Kidgits Club(TM), Simon Super Chefs Live!(TM), Simon DTour Live(TM) and Simon Mall For You(TM), a national media delivery channel including experiential marketing methods, and multiple national and local marketing alliances with Coca-Cola, Visa U.S.A. and Cingular Wireless, among others.

About Lamar

Lamar currently operates 153 outdoor advertising companies in 43 states and is the nation's leader in the highway logo sign business, with operations in 20 of the 25 states that have privatized their logo programs as well as in the province of Ontario, Canada. Logo signs are signs located near highway exits that deliver brand name information on available gas, food, lodging and camping services. Currently, Lamar operates more than 149,000 billboards and more than 97,500 logo sign displays across the country. In addition, Lamar has 63 transit advertising franchises that reach driving audiences in 14 states through displays on bus shelters, benches and buses.

SOURCE Simon Property Group, Inc.

CONTACT: Sarah Heffernan of Fleishman-Hillard, +1-314-982-8680, hefferns@fleishman.com ; or Billie Scott of Simon Property Group, +1-317-263-7148, bscott@simon.com /