Introducing an Established Waterfront Neighbourhood to a New Way of Life
Introducing an Established Waterfront Neighbourhood to a New Way of Life
Background
Queen & Ashbridge, a new, large-scale, high-density, residential housing project the size of an entire city block needed to be introduced to a quiet, well-established waterfront neighborhood in Toronto, where the local community opposed its development. High-density housing was an unproven concept in this established neighbourhood, and it certainly never been attempted at this scale.
The project consisted of purpose-built rental apartments and condos alike, so we needed to develop a brand system and architecture for both the condo development and the apartment complex. We also needed to develop a brand positioning strategy that would appeal to a finicky local community and to real estate investors alike. Lastly, we needed to create and launch a marketing strategy and advertising campaign to drive awareness and ignite sales during the uncertainty and local lock-down of the pandemic.
Charting a Course
We embarked on research to uncover a core audience and audience personas, and we uncovered Mindful Millennials and Almost Empty Nesters. This led to an insight – that you don’t have to sacrifice city living to get the spiritually uplifting benefits of living by the beach.
We developed a positioning that touted Queen & Ashbridge as a beach escape hidden in a city setting. We rolled out branding, branded communications, environmental design and placemaking strategies that all laddered up to this thought. Because Queen & Ashbridge was launched at the height of the pandemic, we also look towards unique virtual strategies and mediums to tell our story. We created an interactive website and held a virtual event with a special appearance by Snoop Dogg and over 3,000 attendants.
Arriving at the Destination
Demand from our virtual event literally crashed the system, and the campaign drove the project to sell completely out during the recessionary period of the pandemic, all while gaining public favour in the local community.
