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...