A compelling, authentic brand strategy and marketing project with original photography and CGI assets for a long-standing property development client.
After proving ourselves with a number of CGI projects for Ocea, this long-standing client appointed Make Studio to deliver the insight-driven, strategic brand identity and marketing for their latest development, Saxongate. Based in Southampton, the site saw the creation of 42 luxury apartments, beautifully converted from an existing commercial building. As the company reached a turning point, they identified future market growth opportunity in premium developments. Ocea wanted support to raise the value perception of their projects both externally and within their marketing and sales function.
As specialists in premium property marketing, Make Studio was selected as the ideal partner agency. The brief was to build an understanding of the audience’s needs and to identify the key value proposition for the development, and then create a brand identity, internal and external CGI images, printed brochures, and promotional hoarding. Ultimately, the project focused on taking the Saxongate development to market for the first time, informing potential buyers and driving property sales.
Visualising a new life
We created a memorable, contemporary identity for the Saxongate development. The brand needed to appeal to a young demographic, so a significant portion of our strategic approach was to study current fashion and trends within the young professional audience. The development offers prospective buyers many positives including a central location, premium interior finish and an affordable purchase price, but admittedly compromises on floorspace. Our approach was to create authenticity in all communication and marketing for the development, highlighting the apartment sizes alongside the additional property benefits.
By recognising this honest and transparent approach, interested buyers will be well informed and qualified ahead of making a sales enquiry. CGI image creation and selection became a key marketing focus and pivoted around inspiring buyers through two key methods: showcasing the high standard and quality of the interior fittings, and providing large apartment floor plans giving a true representation of the layouts. Our photography team also shot lifestyle location photography of the surrounding area to capture the essence of city centre living.
Offering opportunity and choice
Hampshire-based leading property developers Ocea Life had the vision of creating a luxury living apartment building from what was once a commercial property in Central Southampton. Each bespoke living space is intelligently designed to provide light and airy accommodation, finished to a premium standard. The apartments were primarily to be marketed to young, professional first-time buyers and supported through the Help-to-Buy scheme. The development maximises on Permitted Development rights, and as a result the apartments retail at an attractive price, though the reality of the space offered has the potential to create a negative perception and present a hurdle to market the properties.
Contemporary texture and pallette
We created an identity that would appeal to a 23 – 32 age group, resulting in a contemporary brand mark creation based on a modern form of an abstract, broken-away type. The colour palette was based on the Ocea brand, taking highly vibrant fluorescent violet, laid onto a luxurious, amethyst-purple plan paper. Our key focus was on high quality interior imagery, and led the Make Studio CGI specialists to work alongside the senior design specialists at interior designers, Jane Clayton.
We created external imagery to showcase the building forecourt created by Snug Architects, and moved onto the creation of unique and engaging brochure set based on colour plan paper, utlising white foils and metallic ink throughout. The development’s central location in Southampton, with a high volume of passing footfall, created an additional marketing opportunity, and we maximised the sales opportunity. By creating large hoarding panel designs, showcasing the brand, interior CGI and floorplans we gave potential buyers a virtual window into the building and the lifestyle it could offer. The final stage of the project saw the roll out of the brand, imagery and authentic approach across digital and social platforms.
A thriving partnership
Within the first week of the Saxongate sales launch, seven apartments were sold. Our approach, of matching the marketing with the physical property reality through photo-real CGI, resulted in an inspirational, connected experience for prospective buyers. A continuous journey was achieved, with the interior images within the brochures and hoardings recognisable replicated in all the finishes and stylings in the show home, creating a seamless buying experience. Ocea continue to use Make Studio as their lead marketing partner for all developments as testament to the success of this project.
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