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Profile
It’s now just over six months since residential development heavyweight, the GEO Property Group, became one of Extension Marketing’s new clients.
GEO primarily focuses on the development of master-planned communities including Eynesbury Township, 40km west of Melbourne’s CBD, which is a residential community that will include a town centre, golf course and tennis and basketball courts.
The project, eventually home to more than 9,000 people, is an original attempt to build a new town from scratch and create an atmosphere reminiscent of traditional Australian rural towns.
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Extension Marketing principal, Jon Ellis, said the agency was responsible for the full marketing of GEO property developments in Victoria.
“We have been developing a raft of services for GEO, not just promotions. We are providing the full marketing solution for GEO, acting in effect like an in-house marketing team, just outsourced’’ Jon said.
Jon said he was pleased the Extension Marketing team had brought a fresh approach to the GEO properties.
"Extension Marketing works on all of our Melbourne projects. Since we appointed them sales have improved across all of them," GEO property group CEO, Guy Farrands said.
"We can focus on product delivery and new acquisitions because they take care of the specialised competencies (market research, advertising, website design)", Guy added.
The “gumnut campaign” for Eynesbury is just one example of the Extension Marketing approach.
To cut through these days, direct mail campaigns need to be original and meaningful. The EM team came up with the idea of sending out a quarter of a million direct mail packs with real gumnuts inside them to homes across Melbourne’s outer western suburbs. Gumnuts drop from the trees in the stunning Grey Box Forest that visitors have to drive through to enter Eynesbury Township.
At one level the gumnuts promoted the nature and open space that are central assets of Eynesbury and on a more basic level, the gumnuts gave the direct mail piece more thickness than normal mail and offered a different textural experience.
The gumnuts generated widespread curiosity, which in turn drove hundreds of enquiries and many sales.
(Interesting note - the Gumnuts came from Horsham with many of them collected by children from the local primary school to raise money for their CFA. A total of 600,000 gumnuts were collected. Only those with released seeds were collected to minimise any impact on the environment).
Extension Marketing has also created three new websites for GEO’s prestige Victorian developments Eynesbury, Cascades on Clyde and Cornell’s Hill and Jon said these were vital in showing potential buyers and investors the alluring future of the developments.
"We are more than satisfied,” Guy said. “I believe the model of delivery where they (Extension Marketing) work with us for the length of time we need them will be the way of the future for developers similar to GEO."
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Hugh Adams
With a decade of graphic and multimedia design experience both in Melbourne and London, senior graphic designer Hugh Adams joined Extension Marketing last November in a permanent role after freelancing with the team for several months.
Hugh likes the creative freedom he finds at EM and said he relished the opportunities to push the boundaries with his projects and make the most of them.
A keen photographer and muso, Hugh said he enjoyed making up songs on his guitar. “I manage to forget the songs later so they’re usually a one-off,” Hugh said. “If you manage to witness any of the performances, you’re special.”
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Jon Ellis at UDIA
Jon Ellis was invited again to lecture for Urban Development Institute of Australia’s (UDIA) Professional Property Development Program and it was a great success for all involved.
In October last year Jon presented Sales and Marketing for a Development Project and UDIA Education Committee chairperson Gerard Coutts said he did a “fantastic job”
“Jon engaged the audience and had the ability to keep them interested in the most demanding section of the whole program,” Gerard said.
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“He had an hour to present marketing and sales strategies to an audience of 30 people and was thoroughly prepared and charismatic,” he said.
"The reaction from attendees has been very good as he (Jon) explained his depth of experience working for major organisations and as a consultant."
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Taking it to the Regional Centres
Two of Extension Marketing’s recent projects are in regional areas of Australia and prove that grand designs and visions are not exclusive to big city developers.
EM has been working with Tasmanian Developer Porky & Co on a residential development called Highlands, as well as Gary and Jayne Barnes on their luxury aged care and retirement facilities in Albury and Wodonga.
Taking the Extension Marketing approach outside of the big cities was a challenge for marketing assistant, Ennis Cehic.
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“Regional projects are a lot tougher than metropolitan projects due to the small market available in regional areas. There is less demand, so every aspect is crucial”, Ennis said.
The Highlands development at Smithton, on the far north-west coast of Tasmania has come at a period of great public demand, and with design and landscaping guidelines set to inspire cleaner living environments the development is shaping up to be the premier address in the town.
Porky & Co director Sam Hogg said Highlands at Smithton offered a total of 66 land lots from 840sqm to 2547sqm, many with views of the ocean.
“The site really ticks all the boxes. It will outperform in terms of economic viability, design and environmental sustainability,” Sam said.
Local real estate agency Harcourts has been appointed as the sales agent and land is now available from $69,000.
“We believe our marketing needs to maintain aspects of the local familiarity and needs to connect with the community”, said Ennis.
Meanwhile, The Grange in Victorian border town Wodonga is recognised as one of the region’s most innovative aged care facilities, offering residents a suite of care options from independent living to high care.
Construction on the Grange’s sister site in Albury, just over the border in NSW, commenced in 2009 and will feature 10 low and 70 high care places and a 170-villa retirement village.
Ennis said marketing for regional developments relied heavily on “powerful perceptions and word-of-mouth”.
“With marketing for a regional project you need to get it right the first time,” Ennis said.
“And when you do, word travels quickly.”
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Public Relations
Public relations can provide a very cost effective way of giving your marketing campaign an edge. Using PR will not necessarily work on every project but all too often its potential is simply overlooked.
Well-placed media stories are a very effective way of getting a message across and often reach different audiences in different way than normal advertising or marketing efforts.
The key is determining whether or not your project has real stories with news value and human-interest angles genuinely worth pursuing. Often the key to effectively driving these stories is interesting people.
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If you think PR has potential for your project, check with a professional and let them determine if there are any real stories.
Effective media looks very different from marketing and if the stories are just marketing copy, they are likely to be rejected along with your messages.
As with most aspects of our business, if it is worth doing, it is worth doing properly.
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Tel: +61 3 9699 4334 Email: info@extensionmarketing.com.au Website: www.extensionmarketing.com.au
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