Branding Case Study: The Collective Apartments - How Sprout Branded DC's Fastest-Paced Lease-Up
WHEN YOUR BRAND ALIGNS WITH YOUR OPERATIONS & LIFESTYLE
It’s not often we toot our own horn here at Sprout, but sometimes the occasion calls for it. In October 2021, The Garrett at The Collective secured it’s third Best Lease-Up Pace Award during Delta Associates’ 25th Annual Apartment and Condominium Industry Awards for Excellence. The other two buildings within the Collective, Park Chelsea and Agora, won these awards in 2016 and 2018.
Sprout worked with the WC Smith team to craft a custom brand design and message for all three buildings under a master brand - The Collective. Today, we want to share our collective road to success! See what we did there - we love a good play on words.
I think it’s a pretty awesome story about what happens when the branding aligns with the building’s operations and lifestyle.
Holli Beckman, CMO at WC Smith
The trio on this massive branding project took their expertise to 2022 AIM Conference in Huntington Beach:
THE CHALLENGE
The Collective is a three-building apartment community located in the newly revitalized Capitol Riverfront area in the Washington DC area. Overall, The Collective has a total of 1,140 apartments with 103,000+ square feet of amenity space, making it one of the largest residential properties and amenity collections in the United States.
The challenge when approaching a community of this size was that it was designed so that the buildings could operate together, but has the opportunity to function as individual apartment communities if needed. So while each building is totally unique with its own style, amenity package and interior finishes - it also needed to function together.
FREE BRANDING E-WORKBOOK
Download your free branding e-book that showcases how Sprout branded DC’s Fastest-Paced Lease-Up, The Collective. Inside you will find:
- 4 Steps To Research
- Branding Questionnaire
- Naming Hacks
- Logo Design Tip
- Messaging Tips & Worksheet
Get your free step-by-step branding work book here!
THE FOUNDATION
When approaching the branding we had to take into account:
Neighborhood Changes: The Navy Yard area was experiencing a revitalization. There were many new developments in the area from new apartments, restaurants, recreation, and more. People wanted to move there to be close to DC proper while being able to live and breathe the communal lifestyle.
The Competitors: Many of the apartment community messages in the area were about being “new” or talking about what they offered and how they offered it. How could we stand out when everything was shiny and new?
The Audience: We needed to understand the various types of people we saw out and about in the DC area. When you are talking to everyone, you are really talking to no one. So we crafted avatars to pinpoint the people we wanted to speak to and brainstorm a message that would land.
Timeline: Unlike other communities, we had to work with three different timelines for three different buildings. It was important that the brand and message aligned in the short-term and the long-term because not all communities would be delivered at the same time.
The NAME
It was essential that the name and logo told the story of the community without any explanation at all. Many of the other communities were focusing on the “what” or the “how”, we wanted to focus on the “why”. We knew the community would offer the best-of-the-best on every level, so we had communicate why that mattered.
We settled on “The Collective” because by definition collective means:
A group of entities that share or are motivated by at least one common issue or interest, or work together to achieve a common objective.
The Collective gives them an opportunity to thrive…together. It allowed us to weave together the three unique communities both in operation and in opportunity. Residents of one building could access the amenities of another, they could make connections and network with residents from different buildings, and they have everything they need inside and out to achieve their dreams.
THE DESIGN
THE MAIN LOGO
For this luxury apartment logo, we wanted to combine an icon with typography that spoke to the meaning of the word and the relationship of the buildings:
3 rectangles in the icon
3 lines connected in the typography
THE COMMUNITY LOGOS
Each community was designed to have its own name, font, and color palette to speak to its unique identity. The Collective brand would be added at the end to show that these communities are part of the master brand:
Park Chelsea at The Collective: Sophisticated with vibrant and elegant interiors and features.
Agora at The Collective: Contemporary with bright, minimalistic, and sleek interiors and modern amenities.
The Garrett at The Collective: Earthy industrial-chic interiors with amenities for an active lifestyle.
WHY THIS WORKS
This type of model has many benefits for those looking to have unique brands under one master brand.
Connecting With Your Market: Unique elements within a master brand allow you to design a brand to fit your market.
Easier Marketing Opportunities: Branding that has a master plan but has unique customization opportunities allow you to own specific brand terms and have opportunities to stand out.
Added-Value For Asset Sales: This combo approach allows future owners to save THOUSANDS of dollars because they won’t have to start over in branding and marketing.
THE MESSAGING
MISSION: WE BELIEVE THAT COLLECTIVELY WE CAN THRIVE.
The people living at The Collective are all at different places in their lives, but the one thing they have in common is their ability to embrace the next challenge. We don’t just provide convenience, we provide the opportunity to conquer.
From there we broke down the key elements of our messaging strategy:
Elevator Pitch: The one paragraph that tells you everything you need to know about the community.
Pillar Words: The core values that make up this brand that connects the residents and even the onsite team.
Marketing Campaign: The main marketing message that we would blitz the market with.
THE CAMPAIGN: CHALLENGE ACCEPTED
The idea behind the “Challenge Accepted” campaign is to speak to the individuals who are constantly challenging themselves to go to that next level - not just meet, but exceed every challenge that comes their way. For the residents of The Collective, there is nothing that can't be achieved. Through the exchange and connectivity at The Collective, each amenity or feature allows you to reach another level of your own success from health, career, adventure, and so much more.
THE COLLATERAL
Once all the pieces were in place, we simply just put the puzzle pieces together. We designed an apartment collateral package that was branded for The Collective as a whole along with a few pieces unique to each community:
The Collective Collateral:
Pocket Folder
Business Cards
Neighborhood Map
Unique Community Collateral
Brochure
Floor Plan Handouts
DIGITAL MARKETING
When it comes to any website, the key to success is to find the right partners that will work together to ensure that the physical apartment, the printed marketing materials, and digital landmarks will all look and feel the same.
We provided all the brand assets and messaging components to the amazing website development team 30 Lines. They were able to seamlessly capture the brand and deliver a beautiful and functional website for web and mobile along with email marketing campaigns to keep The Collective top-of-mind throughout the development process.
The team at 30 Lines were able to…
Translate bullet points into a visual experience utilizing video, photo galleries, and Matterport virtual tours.
Create a website that was both easy for prospects to use, but also served as a database for the onsite team to sort through over 100+ floor plans.
Incorporate calls-to-action that not only had The Collective personality, but treated the an apartment website like a shopping experience to drive sales.
Create unique landing pages for every point in the sales process to drive prospects toward the tour or to lease.
Build a sense of urgency throughout the development process using a combination of pop-ups on the website and email marketing.
Provide detailed reporting to help attribute leads allowing to optimize overall campaign effectiveness and budget.
Continued to nature prospects and residents through interactive elements on the website like Resident Stories and email campaigns.
You’re not done after they leave the website…
even if they contact youMike Whaling, President and Founder of 30 Lines
30 Lines and WC Smith really leaned on email marketing to cultivate a community both with prospects and existing residents. It took years for all three communities to be developed. Therefore, over the course of months The Collective used email to stay top-of-mind using what is called a drip email campaign:
“Drip marketing is simply sending a limited number of emails to your audience automatically, on a set timing, based on actions they take or changes in their status” from MailChimp.
The Collective did this during the leasing process, but also to residents. Selling doesn’t stop once you leased the apartment, because now you are selling renewals. The Collective had to constantly reaffirm the brand message, the offerings, the location, etc. using email marketing.
OPERATIONS
It’s clear that the WC Smith team brought this message to reality. In a lot of ways their operation is much like a theme park or cruise line from their resident events, expansive amenity areas, and top-notch team that goes above and beyond the essentials.
Remember, the brand messaging positioned The Collective as a place where people could thrive by buying into the communal lifestyle:
103,000+ square feet of amenity spaces shared between all three buildings
Centralized leasing and management between all three buildings
Sense of community that was built by residents for residents
Even during a global pandemic, The Collective team was able to adapt by hosting a robust calendar of virtual or socially distant events, while also promoting their massive work-from-home spaces across the community. Even though the circumstances changed, the message was still the same, and the team continued to deliver.
Branding wasn’t just something in a book that no one looked at ever again. The work done in the branding process was what informed every decision by the team. As they were able to execute those ideas, whether that be resident events or contests, it was then repackaged on the website to provide real-life proof of the brand. That is what separates the good from the best.
Here are a few things Holli at WC Smith did to build a true community at The Collective that spoke to the brand mission:
Hired an activities manager so The Collective really felt like living at an urban resort
Created an essay contest to get residents to explain how they thrived by living at The Collective
Allowed residents to lead their own events (which are the most popular “amenities” they offer like book club, running club, etc.
Hosted a variety of community events to help keep their residents social calendar full
Participated in neighborhood festivals and events
All of this leads to great content and reinforces the message of the lifestyle The Collective was actually building. As that was happening, they were having a 70% resident retention rate and were able to leverage their referrals to fuel occupency. As they had residents that bought into the message and marketed it for them, they were able to spend less per door than others in the area.
TAKEAWAYS
Our experience working on The Collective and with the team at WC Smith was incredible, and it’s been so exciting to see their lease-up success for all three communities. The scale of this project taught us many lessons that we continue to take into apartment branding projects to this day:
Always Have A Point Person: Keeping the lines of communication open but organized is the key to success on a project like this. Although there were many people involved, Holli at WC Smith showed us how easy a big project can be when someone on the other end takes the reins to keep feedback organized.
Speak To The Why: At The Collective it wasn’t just about what amenities and features they brought to the table, it was about how residents could use those things to achieve their dreams. We spoke to their collective passions.
Branding Isn’t Marketing - It’s A Lifestyle: When you invest in branding it’s not just investing in print collateral. To truly see the fruits of your labor, you need to incorporate that brand into every aspect of your community from your marketing, your team culture, and your community culture. The Collective doesn’t mean anything without the people onsite that make it a reality.
FREE E-BOOK
Download your free branding e-book that showcases how Sprout branded DC’s Fastest-Paced Lease-Up, The Collective. Inside you will find:
- 4 Steps To Research
- Branding Questionnaire
- Naming Hacks
- Logo Design Tip
- Messaging Tips & Worksheet
