CHASE STUDY: ELBOW VALLEY WEST
Challenge
Elbow Valley West, the vision of Peters DeWald Land Company and Landstar Developments, was first announced four years ago. The location, just beyond Calgary's border, is a prestigious one situated in the heart of the Municipal District of Rockyview. The Calgary foothills and more specifically, the Elbow Valley area, has seen unprecedented growth and has quickly become one of the most sought after places to live in Southern Alberta. With an abundance of competition and an initial launch four years previous, Elbow Valley West needed to create unheralded attention, publicity and anticipation for its final release of 118 estate home sites.
Solution
With a solid understanding of Elbow Valley West's core target audience (Calgary's affluent homeowners, predominately in the north-west and south-west), the tactics needed to be simple yet effective and communicate a very clear message. The Elbow Valley West offering was a terrific one, and even at the price points was still a great value. Both the developer and Chase understood that it should take very little marketing and advertising to communicate the product offering to a qualified prospect base. As a result, Chase zeroed in and identified the project's niche buying audience and created a campaign that evoked excitement and anticipation for this very exclusive presentation. The key ingredient was how the offering was announced and communicated to the project's audience. Chase implemented a strategy based on simple messaging and a clear and strong urgency message and call to action. If Calgary's affluent population were interested in Elbow Valley West, there would be no room for hesitation.
Advertising/Outdoor Campaign
Simple and straight to the point, the message being communicated to qualified buyers needed to look and feel different than your typical real estate ad. Elbow Valley West was a land offering--not built homes. There were no interior or exterior pictures to use and the developer was not a fan of the run of the mill lifestyle photography. The advertising campaign needed to be simple and clean and convey a strong urgency message with a compelling call to action, motivating prospects to "act now." Chase developed a unique campaign around the phrase "They're not making any more land" and supported it simply by the Elbow Valley West logo + website. Media buys were strategically positioned in atypical sections of the Calgary Herald and kept far from the noise of competing ads. Realizing our buyers are investment savvy, ads were placed in stand-alone sections of the business section and weekend real estate sections. Outdoor advertising was directed to those living in the SW and familiar with the Rockyview/Elbow Valley area and strategically placed on Glenmore Trail West for commuters heading home from downtown Calgary. Chase research showed that those who were currently living in Calgary's SW corridor were passionate about staying in that area, largely due to diverse and highly accessible community amenities, including shopping, dining and entertainment.
Targeted Direct Mail Whisper Campaign: Chase identified select pockets of affluence and key estate communities in Calgary's SW and NW quadrants for the direct mail campaign. A simple and cost effective oversized postcard was created to act as a teaser and drive interested prospects to visit the www.elbowvalleywest.com website to register. The direct mail postcard carried forward the campaign direction with "They're not making any more land." The postcard was effective in garnering an incredible amount of online registrations and qualified interest for the May 5 Land Rush event at Elbow Valley West. The Elbow Valley West direct mail postcard had a successful retention rate of 3.4%.
Public Relations Efforts: Chase championed all public relations efforts for Elbow Valley West and garnered a significant amount of publicity and media coverage over the two week period leading up to the May 5 Land Rush event. Urgency press releases were created and distributed to key media outlets and publications in the city, including radio, print and television to create excitement and anticipation surrounding the upcoming lot release. Information e-blasts combining newsworthy copy and photographs were emailed to radio, television and newsprint editors across the city to inform them of new updates at EVW. Ten days prior to the Land Rush event, interested prospects set up tents, RVs and camps onsite at Elbow Valley West to secure their place in line to purchase one of the exclusive 118 lots. Thanks to the unprecedented media coverage and publicity surrounding Elbow Valley West's Land Rush, there were over 60 families camping and waiting in line by the second last day before the launch.
Registration Website: Similar to the direct mail and advertising campaigns, the website was kept simple and cost effective. With no pictures or photography to use, the website relied heavily on the strong "They're not making any more land" message and the support call to action and urgency messages. The client wanted to focus the website’s efforts on lead generation without getting caught up in unnecessary information and community details.
The End Result
On the day of the Land Rush event, which was held onsite at Elbow Valley West, over 140 families were in line in hopes of staking their claim to one of the 118 available lots in this very prestigious new community. Trailers, tents and RVs lined the property and curious onlookers including major television, radio, newspaper media and the general public, all came out to see what the excitement was about. In a little under four hours, Elbow Valley West was completely sold out, with 118 lucky land rushers staking their claim. With an average lot price of just over $350,000, and more than $30,000,000 in sales, the Elbow Valley West "They're not making any more land" campaign was an unheralded success story for everyone involved.
News Articles/Press Coverage:
-Calgary Herald
-Calgary Sun
-Globe and Mail
-National Post
-CHQR 770am
-Jack FM 96.9
-CBC Radio
-Vibe 98.5
-CJAY 92.1
-CBC National
-Global National
-CTV National/Newsnet
-CHUM/City TV
