NAHB/BIA Marketing Awards for Philadelphia Real Estate

The 2007 William Penn Awards are given annually to recognize outstanding Philadelphia-area development projects and the marketing efforts behind them. The BIA chapter held an event in September, at which this year's winners were announced. This year's winners, listed categorically, are:

2007 William Penn Awards of Excellence Winners

1. Rookie of The Year
   Gina Spaziano - The National, K. Hovnanian
2. Sales Manager of Year
   John Kriza - The Residences at Dockside, The DePaul Group
3. Best Sales Team
   Locust Point - J.A. Reinhold
4. Best Project Manager
   Joe Saturno - The Residences at Dockside, The DePaul Group
5. Best Community Logo
   The Residences at Dockside, The DePaul Group
6. Most Creative B/W Print Ad
   Locust Point, J.A. Reinhold
7. Most Creative Color Print Ad
   Combo Ad, Westrum Development
8. Most Creative Brochure Under $7
   Locust Point, J.A. Reinhold
9. Most Creative Brochure Over $7
   Hilltop at Falls Ridge, Westrum
10. Most Creative Marketing Campaign
    Hilltop at Falls Ridge, Westrum
11. Best Website Under $10,000
    Locust Point, J.A. Reinhold
12. Best Website Over $10,000
    Splat Productions for Residences at Two Liberty, The Falcone Group, LLC
13. Best Sales Center
    Hilltop at Falls Ridge, Westrum
14. Best Architectural Design Condo
    Waterfront Square, Isle Of Capri
    runner up - The Residences at Dockside, The DePaul Group
15. Best Architectural Design Townhome
    Hilltop at Falls Ridge, Westrum
16. Best Conversion Under $500,000
    Locust Point, J.A. Reinhold
17. Best Conversion Between $500k-$799,999
    The Phoenix, Keating Development Co.
18. Best Adaptive Re-Use
    Residences at Two Liberty, The Falcone Group, LLC
19. Best Interior Merchandising Under $500k
    Locust Point, J.A. Reinhold
20. Townhome of the Year $500k-$799,999
    Hilltop at Falls Ridge Society Hill Model, Westrum Development
21. Best Condo Under $500k
    Locust Point, J.A. Reinhold
22. Best Condo Between $500k-$799,999
    The Phoenix, Keating Development Co.
23. Best Condo Between $800k-$1.5m
    Residences at Two Liberty, The Falcone Group, LLC
24. Best Condo Over $1.5m
    Residences at Two Liberty, The Falcone Group, LLC
25. Community of the Year under $500k
    Locust Point, J.A. Reinhold
26. Community of the Year between $500k-$799,999
    The Phoenix, Keating Development Co.
27. Community of the Year between $800k-$1.5m
    The Residences at Dockside, The DePaul Group
28. Community of the Year Over $1.5m
    The Residences at Two Liberty, The Falcone Group, LLC

I thought it was praiseworthy to recognize this year's winners. Even in down markets, builders and marketers use all the resources at their disposal to create and market innovative product which will appeal to urban homebuyers.

The Beaver Has Been Banished...

When I first began writing "Sitegeist" a couple of months ago, one of the first stories I ran dealt with the very risk-taking and risque branding completed in Manhattan for the new construction project "The William Beaver House." The Beaver House used a fictional mascot (a beaver, of course) who was emblematic of the quintessential Beaver House resident. He was a globe-trotting successful entrepreneur who liked to spend time with the ladies. The entire site was suffused with cheeky irreverance and, to read it, one got the sense that the project was built for a very well defined demographic.

A week and a half ago, I was meeting with a Manhattan sales prospect and we logged on to the Beaver's website and -- gasp -- the entire branding for the project had been reworked (see homepage above.) Gone is the fictional mascot (except for an iconographic representation in the lower left corner of the homepage) and gone is the messaging targeting the jetsetting, swinger demographic. The website now has this pristine "precious metal" look and is much more traditional in selling the value of the project.

All this begs the question: How seriously do developers really take this whole notion of "branded architecture?" If one buys into the current thinking, projects are being developed these days with the notion of creating distinct and definable brands. Thus, if a project was aimed towards a young successful set of globetrotters, one would include amenities that spoke to that demographic. How then, is it possible to just change the branding of a project without changing the design or the amenities? This seems to be what the Beaver House is doing. I guess the market will decide if any of this really matters...

This is Probably a Good Book, But The Guy Recommending It Is a Bit of a Fraud

I guess my headlines this morning are somewhat revealing of the glib sort of mood I seem to be in...

Reading the back story in The Real Deal last week, I happened upon a reference from the doyenne of residential real estate marketing herself,Louise Sunshine. Asked what book she was currently reading, she responded with Anna Klingmann's recently released book, "Brandscapes: Architecture in the Experience Economy."

The book is about, well, what this blog is supposed to be concerned with. Namely, buildings and brands. Quoting the inside front cover,

"In the twenty-first century, we must learn to look at cities not as skylines but as brandscapes and at buildings not as objects but as advertisements and destinations. In the experience economy, experience itself has become the product; we're no longer consuming objects but sensations, even lifestyles. In the new environment of brandscapes, buildings are not about where we work and live but who we imagine ourselves to be. In "Brandscapes," Anna Klingmann looks critically at the controversial practice of branding by examining its benefits and considering the damage it may do..."

You can order a copy of "Brandscapes" from Amazon here...

And, by the way, if you're wondering who the "Fraud" referred to above is: "c'est moi..." Why am I a fraud? Well, truth be told, I haven't actually read "Brandscapes" yet.

But, in all fairness, I just got my copy yesterday...

I'm Not a Blogging Guru, But These Guys Are...

It's a curious thing, writing a real estate blog in Philadelphia. I follow "emerging trends" in real estate marketing a fair amount and, almost without exception, alot of the innovation seems to be driven from Seattle and San Francisco. Recently, there was an entire conference for real estate bloggers in San Francisco. This post is from a video seminar, created as part of this conference. It features leading real estate professionals who maintain blogs, talking about how blogging has helped their businesses...

Real Estate Print Advertising Rule of Thumb Number 10: It's a Good Idea to Tell Your Readers Where Your Project is Located

Reading the Sunday Paper this morning, I happened upon a quarter-page six-panel layout featuring a number of different new construction offerings of various sizes. My friend, Tom, studied the ad above for "101" and quizzically looked at me and asked "Where the heck IS that project?" I'm passingly familiar with it and knew it was located in downtown Philadelphia, but, I'm wondering, how many people looked at it and had now clue where the project is located?

I'm guessing the lack of address is either an oversight or there's an underlying assumption that readers will know the project is in downtown. (But, even if that were the case, WHERE in downtown is still an important question to answer...) But, even if that was the rationale at work, both Tom and I noted that four of the six projects (three of which are highrises) are nowhere near Philadelphia.

Admittedly, there's no room to spare in a 3" X 3" ad but, one would think, project address is one "detail" that shouldn't be absent from that expensive little swatch of ad space...

Renderings: They Aren't Just for New Construction Anymore...

Yet another article in The Real Deal this month talks about a subject central to our business at Splat. Writing in the August issue, Lauren Elkies notes that the use of renderings to promote existing properties is increasing. There are several circumstances which have led brokers to commission renderings for existing spaces. Sometimes, the property in question is "raw space;" space which is open to custom configuration by the purchaser. In other situations, the unit suffers from poor layout decisions and the rendering is used to demonstrate how slight alterations to the floorplan will result in a more liveable space. Often though, the rendering is simply commissioned because the raw space is, well, just plain not very attractive. Elkies quotes Sharon Held, a Sr. VP at Corcoran, who notes, "I don't know why it hasn't caught on,..." "When it's empty, your eye goes to the worst wart..."

You can catch the entire article here...

Phinally, Philly Winning More Phavor in the Big Apple...

Can't afford to buy a Manhattan Manse but still want the big city resources that Long Island just can't offer? This article in the August issue of The Real Deal, notes that a partnership has been formed between New York based brokerage, DG Neary Realty and the Greater Philadelphia Tourism and Marketing Corporation with the intention of promoting Center City properties to those working in Manhattan. Recently, a number of Center City projects, (such as Splat's client, The Residences at Two Liberty Place, have been introduced to the marketplace which offer amenities, luxury and lifestyle suggestive of what one might find in Manhattan. Obviously, some New York based "Phillyphiles" think our story is worth telling, which can only be a good thing for real estate in the City of Brotherly Love...

Can a Joke Without a Punchline Still Be Funny?

I'm going to depart from the customary "buildings, buildings, buildings" emphasis of Sitegeist today to talk about a local branding campaign that has gotten much buzz over the last couple of years locally.

I started thinking about the "I Hate Steven Singer" campaign when a branding newsletter passed across my desk. Steven Singer is a local jewelry store in the Philadelphia area, which has targeted its branding efforts to the 21 - 30 year old male demographic. The article extolled the success of the campaign, noting that the messaging spoke particularly well to its core audience and noting that annual revenues at Steven Singer have appreciated a healthy 15 - 20 percent since the introduction of the campaign.

Here's how the campaign has progressed, in a nutshell... According to this
Wall Street Journal online article. The campaign began "..with a radio spot featuring a man's voice saying, "I hate Steven Singer" and inviting listeners to find out why by visiting the store. Next came the billboards, followed by graffiti-style "I hate Steven Singer" stickers on store windows. The phrase also is still plastered on an array of promotions."

The official "byline of success" of the campaign is that, upon reading "I Hate Steven Singer," viewers have been compelled to go into the store to satisfy their curiosity or go online to learn more about the campaign and the store's offerings. Once at the website or in the store one learns that the "I" in the tagline is, in fact, a prototypical Steven Singer customer and the reason he hates Steven is because his girlfriend/fiance has made him spend lots of money there or the jewelry was an inadvertant cause of marriage and fatherhood.

It's all very cheeky, irreverent and sometimes sexual. If you buy into the popular wisdom the campaign succeeds because it cleverly reaches the "guy" demographic who, truth be told, would probably rather be spending a few grand on any number of other things besides jewelry for the missus. And, although you can't argue with Singer's claims of great ROI on his advertising dollar, I've always had a few issues with the campaign.

Just out of curiosity, for instance, I stood outside Steven Singer's store this morning and asked ten randomly chosen folks if they knew what the slogan meant. My responses basically broke down into three categories. Six people had absolutely no clue what the slogan meant. Three folks told me that the slogan refers to the fact that "the competition hates Steven Singer." And, lastly, one was able to correctly explain the tagline.

The lack of understanding about the meaning of the slogan is one of the problems with the campaign, perhaps. I asked Jami Slotnick, a partner at the Philadelphia/New York Marketing Firm, Munroe Creative Partners what she thought of the campaign and she expressed a couple of concerns. The first concern raised was, at the time of the campaign's rollout, there may not have been enough brand penetration for the client. In other words, instead of asking "WHY is Steven Singer hated," folks were asking "WHO is Steven Singer?" Secondly, there seems to be a "delivery failure" issue with the question itself. None of the non-billboard print signage that one sees around town tells people how they can find out "who" hates Steven Singer and why. The billboard signage does have the web address listed, but it's questionably legible at sixty miles an hour.

The net result of this is that there are a whole bunch of folks around Philadelphia who have heard the ubiquitous slogan but don't have a clue what it means and, possibly, who Steven Singer is. One has to wonder if the initial "teaser" campaign asking the question could have been followed with a campaign that gave a more clearly expressed "call to action," telling people what they could do to find out who Steven Singer is and why is so loathed.

In the end, of course, the client's net happiness and perceived return on investment is really all that matters. In that regard, the buzz on the street is that the healthy growth in sales over the last couple of years is a clear indicator of success. Of course, that healthy growth has probably come with a pretty big price tag. The most prominent media outlet for the store's advertising is the Sirius-based "Howard Stern" show. I can't back this up with facts but, I'm guessing, that advertising on Howard don't come on the cheap.

A Plug for Inman News...

I'm not sure how many real estate marketing people are subscribers to the Inman News site, but, after spending many hours on their site, I've decided to give them a plug. Inman is a clearinghouse of articles and information related to real estate marketing and technology. Earlier this year, they ran a series of articles on the embrace of various "social media" techniques -- blogs and online social networking sites -- and how these communications methods are being used professionally by real estate agents or marketers. Although there have been no empirical studies done, one well-recognized positive consequence of an agent or development writing their own blog is the increased exposure the entries give to search engines. In other words, the more you blog, the higher your page rank on Google or Yahoo searches. The entire series of articles is here, but you'll need to be a paid subscriber to read them...

Oh Condo, You're So Fine; You're So Fine You Blow My Mind...

A friend sent me this article, which appeared in the New York Times this past weekend...The article talks about the efforts in many new real estate projects to tie the identity of a project directly to a "theme song." As someone that has creative directed a number of web and video projects that were soundtracked, I can attest that choosing music is one of the thorniest and most scrutinized aspects of rounding out the identity for a new development. At any rate, I thought the attached was thoughtful and might be of interest...

Hey Baby, wanna go back to my POD and...

Manhattan is a funny real estate market. Usually ahead of the curve on real estate phenomena that later become standard in smaller markets, the New York market is currently spearheading a trend in kitchens that, in many ways, seems to reverse another longstanding trend in kitchen design (that also probably started in New York...)

I'm talking about the "high-end-everything," "industrial-Thermador-this" and "Viking-Range-that" phenonmenon. Ya know, the one that allows the six and seven figure dual-income households (who seldom cook) to rest assured knowing that -- when the caterers come -- they can make it look like the Gazpacho and Branzino were whipped up right in the couple's kitchen.

For years, the industrial aesthetic that these appliances featured -- usually coupled with exotic granites and Italian glass tiles -- heralded that the kitchen was a place of honor and beauty. But a recent trend in New York seems to be closing the door (quite literally) on the developer's love affair with the kitchen.

Recent projects in Manhattan, most notably Jade Jagger's "Jade" project in Chelsea, have taken the attitude that dishwashers, ranges and sinks are not items whose presence should be celebrated in the Manhattan condo. In fact, they should be hidden from view, when guests arrive. To that end, kitchens and (many) bathrooms at Jade are built back to back and feature wraparound doors, which -- when closed -- box both rooms off in smooth, lacquered panels. These core elements, called "Pods" at Jade, are reminiscent of the jewelry boxes for which Jade is well known. As she notes, "The beauty... (of the pod)... is that, when you close it, it is clean and finished. It is quite a beautiful object in the center of the room, ..."

Jade is not the only project in Manhattan that's boxing up the kitchen, though. Previously, I wrote about The William Beaver House, which -- similar to the Pods at Jade -- feature "attache kitchens," which have panelized systems covering the kitchen from view. Just last week, as well, I toured Core Development's Legacy project on the Upper East Side and -- in their model condominium -- they too had boxed out the kitchen as a discrete, cubist mass with retractable sliding door elements. Not literally a "pod" but a first cousin,in terms of spatial form. (The model at The Legacy, by the way, was gorgeous...)

So, will New York "pods" be showing up in other urban markets anytime soon? (Or, have they already?) I'm not aware of any making their way to Philadelphia yet, but, it does seem to complement the modernist "luxe loft" concept that champions clean lines in (sometimes) tight living spaces...

Hi-Tech Roundup

This link, pulled from The Inman Blog offers more insight into the novel and (maybe) revolutionary uses realtors are finding for web based searches and property information tracking using mobile devices. From automated information beamed to your phone or PDA via a text message to information retrieval systems using voice recognition, this post give a quick rundown of emerging real estate tech tools...

Does your Neighborhood Walk the Walk?

For all you urban evangelists out there, there's a new tool out there which allows you to graphically emphasize the convenience of downtown or neighborhood living. The site, called Walk Score allows users to see a given neighborhood's "walkability" ranking. Repurposing information fed to it by Google Maps, Walk Score, according to its makers "...helps people find walkable places to live. Walk Score calculates the walkability of an address by locating nearby stores, restaurants, schools, parks, etc."

With a 92 ranking, my neighborhood in Philadelphia should be a "Walkers' Paradise," where "Most errands can be accomplished on foot and many people get by without owning a car."

True enough, I know many of my neighbors live sans automobile. (But they usually tell me that's because of the high price for auto insurance and the parking problems in Center City, Philadelphia...)

Philly Finally Feelin the Heat of the Housing Slump...

Well, it's official. After months of guarded reassurances that this region has been somewhat immune to the effects of the tumbling housing market, this article in the South Jersey CourierPost confirms our darker suspicions. It seems that, though it may be less traumatic than places like Florida, the market in the Mid-Atlantic is indeed faltering. Southern New Jersey seems to be the hardest hit, with sales falling 13 percent in the first half of this year.

This skeptic was always unswayed by the numerous predictions made by industry luminaries which spoke of a "rebound" late this year. Usually the luminaries cited are executives within businesses who have a direct interest in the rebound itself, namely, lenders or home builders. Now many industry leaders aren't predicting an uptick until 2009. Unfortunately, for those of us in the field, historic real estate cycles feature mult-year downturns, as well as robust, multi-year gains. Sounds like the 2009 prediction, itself, might be a little optimistic. But, I'm keeping my fingers crossed...

When your client creates their own marketing challenges...

This blog is not principally concerned with the nuts-and-bolts daily challenges faced by real estate agents, but this story from New York Magazine's website had me smiling. From time to time, my staff and I regret the unfortunate (in our humble view) marketing or branding decisions our clients make, but, thankfully, we've never had to deal with these kinds of problems. Read the story here...

"The times they are a changin'.."

...
I came across this story in an interesting London real estate blog, The Rat and Mouse. The story actually references something which appeared on this side of the pond, in a Sixty Minutes story of earlier this spring.

The story chronicles the struggle of online real estate brokerage mavericks Redfin with the "establishment" real estate community. Essentially, Redfin's model offers brokerage services at a substantial discount below the traditional six percent commission rate. They use a flat seller's fee of $3000 and -- in a move that must be peeving a number of folks -- they refund two-thirds of the standard buyer's commission back to the purchaser of the home. You can watch the entire Sixty Minutes story here...

Leaving the Beaver...

As I was browsing this month's "The Real Deal" yesterday, an article caught my eye. "Musical Chairs for Condo Marketing Firms" notes that the development team behind the William Beaver House condo in lower Manhattan has changed marketing agents. That, in and of itself is not especially noteworthy; developers change brokers and marketers with some regularity,particularly in tightening markets. However, the fact that the project in question was the William Beaver did make the story newsworthy. "The Beave", so named for its location at William and Beaver Streets in Lower Manhattan, had one of the most ambitious and racy identity campaigns I've yet to see. (Okay, so I am usually holed up here in Philly, which, admittedly, is not known for risk-taking real estate marketing...) Andre Belazs, the brains behind the project, had pulled out all the stops for its marketing. The campaign's centerpiece is a fictional cartoon beaver who is also the project's namesake. William Beaver (or, as his French friends call him "Le Beaver") appears in various illustrations and videos on the project's website. The well-groomed (if somewhat hirsute) dam-builder also embodies many of the qualities that the young-bucks-of-Wall-Street target demographic for the project admire. He's fabulously successful, hardworking and, apparently, a Player. Sex appeal was skillfully used in the marketing of the project. Bathrooms, for instance, are advertised as being "big enough for three" and many of the original renderings for the project featured barely-dressed Manga babes. Behind all the identity work though, is a smartly conceived project, which seems tailor made to the lifestyle of the Financial District's up-and-comers. "Attache Kitchens" feature sliding door and counter elements that allow virtually all appliances -- sink, cooktop, etc -- to be concealed, creating extra temporary counter space in the process. A similar idea lies behind the "Murphy Offices" featured in many of the units. Small office spaces within the units are designed to be easily hidden from view by simply closing a pair of doors, allowing residents to entertain on the fly. Building amenities are likewise oriented to a younger, more active and aspirational crowd and feature a glass-enclosed Jacuzzi, a lap pool, basketball courts... the list goes on and on.

So why the change in sales agents for a project this well conceived? Surely, dear readers you don't actually expect to find the answer to that weighty question on a blog, do you? Scoring the real scoop on that one, after all, would require some primary research and, well, we all know that's not what bloggers are known for. Recent changes to the project's website however, do point to some sanitizing taking place in the formerly-racy illustrations that once appeared there. Gone are the barely-dressed babes and their undressed beaus. Most renderings now are simply absent those naughty revelers or their denizens are more discretely attired. (I'm not sure, but
John Ashcroft's bodice covering skills may have been put into service...) Whatever the reasons for the change in sales agents, it is clear that someone within the project's inner circle decided that the project's brand was too much "Animal House" and not enough "William Beaver House."