A peek behind the curtain to show how we combine strategy, insight and creative to come up with beautiful brands. In this case, two creative routes for a property developer.
3. This work was part of a pitch process.
It wasn’t successful but we stand by it as a great example of insight, creativity
and inbound marketing combining to create something special.
We wished we’d won the pitch, but every agency has one that got away.
This is ours.
4. The purpose of sharing this deck is to show the user-centred thinking
and creativity we put into our projects — property-based or otherwise.
8. The initial brief focused on a need to brand the marketing suite and create
an identity for the physical development.
All good stuff.
But we saw an opportunity to challenge that brief and take a digital-first
approach to their property marketing.
Why? Easy. Because their audience already had.
9. In 2019, 98% of millennial home-buyers searched for property online.1
In 2020, a record 97% of all buyers used the internet to search for a home.2
While one in six would put an offer on a property after a virtual viewing.3
1. https://docs.google.com/viewerng/viewer?url=https://www.nar.realtor/sites/default/files/documents/2019-real-estate-in-a-digital-age-08-22-2019.pdf
2. https://www.nar.realtor/research-and-statistics/research-reports/highlights-from-the-profile-of-home-buyers-and-sellers#searchprocess
3. https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/coronavirus-property-viewing-virtual-housing-market-a9622366.html
10. Of course, digital-first doesn’t mean digital-only.
A mixed-channel approach incorporating traditional media is vital in building awareness.
But it must tie together and centre around a meaningful and beautiful digital experience.
11. Combined with a distinctive, disruptive brand identity, this is how a property
development stands out — and win the most important real estate of all: space
in the minds of the audience.
13. The emotion of home
Working through this brief, we thought a lot about how
environments interact with the senses — and our sense
of self.
We spoke to Dr Fay Bound Alberti of York University,
a leading authority on the impact of environments on
emotion, who offered some interesting perspectives
on the interaction of built environments with our sense
of identity and how these factors affect emotion.
We’ve incorporated these ideas into the work — many
of which were popularised by the architect Pallasmaa
in his 1996 ‘The Eyes of the Skin’ — to create tactile,
extensible themes and concepts that embody all
of the five senses, not just the visual.
14. It is evident that ‘life-enhancing’ architecture has to address
all of the senses simultaneously, and help to fuse our image
of self with our experience of the world.”
Juhani Pallasmaa — The Eyes of the Skin
“
15. Because we are not solely visual beings. Many of our most intimate,
most meaningful experiences take place without sight. We close our
eyes to listen to music. To focus. To meditate. To kiss our loved ones.
So we challenged ourselves: how could we think about touch, smell,
sound and even taste to bring our propositions and sense of
environment to life in the minds of our audiences?
How could we get to feel transported and connected to a place that
doesn’t yet exist, except in the imagination?
18. Inspired by a colourful history. Our site was once a dye works, where untreated
materials were changed through colour into things of beauty. Dresses, furnishings,
curtains, bags - they might have started as blank canvases but they were
transformed into vibrant, colourful treasures adored for generations.
19. We want our development to be the canvas on which residents
paint the story of their lives.
A place where commerce and communities thrive. Where a history
of colourful transformation will inspire a future of colourful living.
We’ll give residents and businesses the platform and inspiration
they need to live life in full colour.
21. The secret to happiness? Full colour living.
The surrounding green countryside.
The neon lights of the city by night.
At home bathed in lighting to suit your mood.
And the golden glow of opportunity,
for everyone from families to investors.
That’s life at Calico. That’s life in full colour.
22.
23. Purposeful by nature, colourful by design
Life in full colour is an eye-catching proposition, a way to name our streets and
shops, and an invitation to lead a life centred around wellbeing.
Life in full colour looks beautiful and works hard because it’s both colour and
purpose combined.
24. A slab serif that’s punchy and playful.
An organic yet geometric shape that feels fluid and formed at the same time.
25. What if colour wasn’t just for decoration?
Imagine a brand ident grounded in colour
and wellness.
Where it’s used to make people feel
energised, calm, confident, better.
Where it’s not just an aesthetic.
It’s there by design.
26. Feel good on the inside. What if every apartment came with a Philips Hue
installed? Calm, cosy, bright, energised - residents can reflect the mood they’re
feeling, or change the light to a mood they want to feel.
27. Colour coded
Colour is an endlessly flexible theme that can easily extend into the Calico community.
Residents might step out of their Indigo Block apartment for a pre-work workout at Red’s Gym. While
lunchtime coffee and cake at The Palette Knife can be followed, after a long day at The Dye House
studios, by a craft beer at Pigment.
28. Proposition
Development
Residential Supporting Uses Destination
Resi:
Indigo Block, Magenta
House, Orchil Row
Community Hall:
The Salt Yard
Management office:
Canvas
Gym:
Red’s Gym
Coffeeshop:
Palette Knife
Makers Yard:
The Dye House
Bar:
Pigment
Nursery:
Rainbows
Village Sq:
Bedford Square
Boxpark:
Chroma
30. We created a buyer persona for Calico, mapping out their user journey based on inbound
marketing, OOH and digital assets — all organised and automated using the HubSpot
growth platform.
31. Meet Sarah, our first-time buyer.
Sarah’s 24. She rents in Huddersfield, where she went to university
to study English Literature.
She works in Leeds for NHS Digital, commuting by train, which she
hates because it’s run by Transpennine Express.
Attract Convert Close Delight
32. We’ll capture the mood. After another delayed commute into Leeds, Sarah walks past our digital hoarding in the
city centre and notices Calico’s eye-catching creative. Here, we merge traditional and digital with a responsive
hoarding that changes colour depending on the mood of the city (monitored via online social listening tools).
Attract Convert Close Delight
33. At her desk, Sarah googles ‘Calico Leeds’ and finds our website. It looks
beautiful and is designed to engage from the get-go, optimising its conversion
rate. Sarah’s intrigued.
Attract Convert Close Delight
Sarah accepts cookies when she lands
on our site, which means we can
retarget ads to her across her social
media platforms.
34. Targeted social ads. With a clear understanding of our
audience, we can target them with relevant messages on
the right channels. So the next time Sarah clicks onto
Instagram, this is what she sees.
Attract Convert Close Delight
During her lunch at
Laynes, Sarah checks
her instagram and sees
an ad from Calico.
35. Sarah doesn’t know much about the local area. But on our Instagram feed, she discovers a
real sense of place - a lifestyle as well as a location. As part of a broader placemaking plan,
we use Instagram Guides to reach our digitally native FTB with longer form content that sells
#LifeInFullColour.
Attract Convert Close Delight
Sarah browses the
Instagram grid and
Instagram Guides, learning
about the Calico
development and the
surrounding areas.
36. Attract Convert Close Delight
Chatting with our audience 24/7. Chatbots mean Calico never sleeps - perfect for people like Sarah who are
late-night browsing after work, or for an investor in a different time zone altogether. A HubSpot chatbot will give
them all they need to know and help us better understand how we can help them.
Sarah chats with our
download brochure
chatbot, subscribing for
marketing emails.
This creates a contact
record in HubSpot,
detailing Sarah’s point
of conversion, all the
information she’s
submitted through the
chatbot, and the digital
source of her enquiry.
She’s automatically
assigned a contact
owner in HubSpot (a
sales consultant), who
is automatically made
aware of her brochure
download and
engagements.
37. Attract Convert Close Delight
Beautiful brochures don’t just have to be in print. Sarah will download a
gorgeous Calico brochure from the website or a landing page - proof that
our brand can be consistently beautiful across every channel.
Whilst Sarah’s looking
through the digital
brochure (hosted on
HubSpot), the platform
is tracking her
engagement and
recording how long
she’s spent on each
page. Our sales
consultant can see all
this.
Sarah can book an
appointment directly
through our digital
brochures.
This call-to-action takes
her to another chatbot,
and HubSpot alerts the
sales consultant of the
viewing and books it
into their calendar.
38. Attract Convert Close Delight
Personalised confirmation. Sarah’s confirmation
email is written in a natural, friendly tone that
matches our colourful spirit with a QR link to help
her find our development.
HubSpot automatically
sends Sarah a confirmation
email that reminds her
when her appointment is
due and the name of the
sales consultant.
39. Attract Convert Close Delight
Sarah scans a QR code to
unlock a bike to travel to
her viewing. This triggers
an alert in HubSpot, which
informs the sales
consultant that Sarah is on
her way. The sales
consultant knows to ask
Sarah how her ride into
town was.
Green machines.
Our car-free credentials can be
improved with Calico bikes. We
could invite people like Sarah to
ride to Calico for a viewing or
simply give Leeds a greener way
to get around.
40. Attract Convert Close Delight
A Calico convert.
Sarah has lived at Calico for two
weeks and she’s already feeling part
of the community. A free croissant at
the local cafe, invitations to meet the
neighbours, and welcome packs good
enough for her Instagram grid. ≈
After Sarah has moved in,
HubSpot sends her an email
asking how she’s settling in
and invites her to a free spin
class at Red’s Gym.
She attends the class, meets
some neighbours and posts
on Insta - checking in at the
Calico location.
Her friend Priyanka sees this
on Instagram and DM’s
Sarah to ask what its like
living there.
Sarah tells her she’s loving it
and the cycle starts again
with Priyanka.
41.
42. Calico is a colourful future inspired by its founder and history, using colour as a flexible,
tactile brand ident and as a way to promote wellness.
Our second route takes the idea of wellness further. It says that home should give you what
you want whenever you need it, so you can find your perfect balance in life.
44. “This one’s just right.”
The Goldilocks principle refers to the host of cosmic elements that have to be
just right for life to flourish. Temperature, atmospheric makeup, gravity —
throw one out just a little and life cannot thrive.
Us humans are not so different. Work and play, community and
independence, tranquillity and excitement — they have to be balanced just
right for us to find happiness.
45. Absolute balance
For alchemists, the colour gold represented the perfection
of matter on any level, including that of the mind, spirit and
soul. Gold symbolised a striving for equilibrium as it
contained the perfect balance of all four elements.
46. Alchemy, a word meaning: “A seemingly magical process
of transformation, creation, or combination.”
We say, forget the or.
Our development is a transformation from old to new.
A creation of a better way to live. And a combination of
all the things that make life joyful:
Work and play, leisure and fitness, city and country - all
in the right place, all in the right proportions.
Alchemy combines life’s essential elements, so people
can live out the best of all worlds.
Work. Life. Balanced.
48. Purposeful by nature, colourful by design
Our purpose is to make balance a natural part of our lives.
To have what we want, when we need it.
Work. Life. Balanced. encapsulates this desire.
Alchemy will offer all the elements needed to create a harmonious life.
And then combine them into a beautifully balanced place to live.
49. Abstract shapes balance harmoniously to create our ‘A’ glyph. The three elements depend on each other to craft the ‘A’,
symbolising the importance of interconnectedness.
52. Testing our metal
Alchemy is rich in theme and history - perfect inspiration for street names, building
blocks, and on-site businesses. Take the seven metals recognised by alchemists:
silver, mercury, copper, lead, iron, tin and gold.
A resident could leave their home on Silversmith Lane, work at Tin House Studios, hit
The Leadmill gym, dine at The Copper Pot, and sip a nightcap at The Bronze
cocktail bar.
53. Proposition
Development
Residential Supporting Uses Destination
Resi:
Element House,
Copper Box,
Rutherford Row
Community Hall:
The Base
Management office:
Newton House
Gym:
Leadmill Gym
Coffeeshop:
Zinc
Makers Yard:
Tin House Studios
Bar:
The Bronze
Nursery:
Seesaws
Village Sq:
Gold Square
Boxpark:
Alloy
54. This time, our buyer persona was interested in property as an investment
opportunity — but the idea of using an inbound method using HubSpot’s
automated technology to underpin it still made perfect sense.
55. Meet Adam, our investor.
He’s 34, lives in Leeds and is a property investor.
He studied Business Management at Leeds University and has worked as a letting
agent since graduating. Having saved enough capital, Adam’s ready to purchase
his first investment property.
Attract Convert Close Delight
56. Attract Convert Close Delight
Adam sees a full page
press ad and reads a press
release in Business Insider
about the future of Leeds
and how it is becoming an
investment hotspot for
the UK.
Start the press. We’ll promote the
investment potential of Alchemy
through a network of northern
business and property publications.
57. Attract Convert Close Delight
Adam sees the hoarding for
the Alchemy development
while out in Leeds.
As a letting agent, he’s seen
a lot of property advertising,
but this stands out - and he
knows the market is crying
out for an offering that offers
much-needed work/life
balance.
Track-stopping hoardings. Alchemy’s rich and elegant
brand aesthetic translates beautifully to hoardings and
other OOH collateral.
58. He sees PR around our
development - a unique
display in the centre of
Leeds that showcases what
Alchemy has to offer.
Attract Convert Close Delight
A brand to experience. We take the brand out from
Kirkstall and into Leeds, generating awareness
through communal, experiential campaigns.
59. Attract Convert Close Delight
Topping the Google charts. Through organic SEO and paid PPC ads, we’ll take
Alchemy to the top of Google’s search pages for key terms, making it easy for our
investor - or anyone else - to find us.
Having invested in paid
ads, guest articles (press
releases), and organic SEO,
Adam finds Alchemy at the
top of Google even when
he’s searching for broader
terms, such as ‘property
investment in Leeds’.
60. Attract
Adam has seen Alchemy
ads before and not yet
converted. But, knowing
he’s interested, our
retargeted Instagram ads
are a timely reminder for
him to find out more.
Convert Close Delight
Retargeting our investor. Retargeted ads appear in the feeds of likely Alchemy
prospects who haven’t yet converted, either by clicking on the CTA to visit the
website, organising a call with a sales consultant, or arranging a show home viewing.
61. Attract Convert Close Delight
Our shop window. Our website is beautiful, user-friendly, and rich in content.
The investor discovers our series of blogs on property investment in Leeds,
from which there’s a CTA to download a digital brochure.
Adam visits our website and
reads our blogs about the
investment opportunities in
Leeds and at Alchemy.
62. Attract Convert Close Delight
Adam engages with a brochure
chatbot and views an
investment-specific digital
brochure.
Adam now becomes a lead in
HubSpot. Because he’s converted
through the investment-specific
chatbot, he’s assigned to the
dedicated investment sales
consultant.
HubSpot notifies us of Adam’s
interest, the previous content he’s
engaged with, and the fact he’s
viewing the brochure.
Future proofing. Our digital brochure explains why Alchemy and Leeds is hot
property. As a digital piece of collateral, our investor can organise show home viewings
there and then with a simple press of a CTA. We can also track their activity via
HubSpot.
63. Attract Convert Close Delight
Adam has read the digital brochure,
but likes the feel and tactility of print.
Luckily, so do we.
Having requested one, we send Adam
a high-quality brochure for him to read
during his downtime - and to show any
friends and colleagues who might be
interested.
A brochure that translates across any channel. We want our brand to feel tactile and
alive no matter how or where our user engages with it. Our Alchemy identity allows for
beautifully consistent print collateral and engaging digital materials.
64. Attract Convert Close Delight
Via the digital brochure,
Adam books his
appointment in the
calendar of the sales
consultant, who’s notified
of the date via HubSpot.
Chatting with our audience 24/7. Chatbots mean Alchemy never sleeps for
our readers, who may be on a different time zone as an overseas investor.
Through their answers, we’ll better understand how we can help them.
65. Attract Convert Close Delight
HubSpot then sends Adam an
automated confirmation email for his
appointment, and gives him the
opportunity to send any questions to
the sales consultant in advance.
Confirmation. We confirm our investor’s
virtual viewing over email, reminding them of
the time and date, and giving our contact
details for any questions they might have. Our
tone will be slightly more clipped to reflect the
more serious audience.
66. Attract Convert Close Delight
Fit for an investor. Postable short runs of tactile screen-printed
glitter-ink posters and welcome packs would delight any investor
and brighten up office spaces.
We’re digital-first, but not digital-only.
We can delight Adam by sending him
beautifully designed, high-quality-print
posters that both look amazing and
reinforce his confidence in his
investment.
67.
68. Two different routes, both beautifully tactile, persona-delighting, extensible,
emotive, multi-sensory and grounded in the history of the site.
69.
70. And that’s that.
Two brands, two styles, but both rooted in how the development could make its target
audiences’ lives better.
With these ideas in place, it’s then a question of making them look and sound unignorable
— and using platforms like HubSpot to manage a multi-channel campaign that blends
inbound marketing with OOH advertising.
71. So, have you got a favourite — Calico or Alchemy?
We’d love to hear your thoughts.
Even better, we’d love to work on your next project.
Whether property or otherwise, we apply the same deep thinking and big-idea
creativity to everything we do.
