Category: Latest News
Latest News
Walktrue Workshop: Highwood House
To clearly explain the power of the website and how it works in practice, our Walktrue Workshop this month focuses on Highwood House.
Walktrue had the pleasure of working with Knight Frank on many aspects of Highwood House’s marketing including CGI, branding and VR but for this article we’re going to deep dive into the website we created.
The brief
After planning permission was granted for an exceptional 16,000 sq ft family home in an AONB just outside Watlington the owner was left with a challenge; how to sell the dream of this new home with nothing more than the site occupied by a few run down buildings.
Walktrue were tasked with creating a suite of marketing materials which would adequately convey the grandeur of the proposed new home within this exceptional setting that commands far reaching views. A key part of this strategy was the website which would bring all the material together in one high end, lifestyle led, subtle sales pitch.
The Highwood House strategy
For this kind of off-plan selling it is always important to focus on the type of consumer likely to purchase the property. The initial stages of this project were establishing who that ideal consumer is and building up an image of what they want; from a home, from an investment, from life.
Armed with this information, Walktrue were able to create fully integrated marketing material for Highwood House which is housed on the website but can also be delivered both on paper and agents platforms.
The website takes the potential buyer on a journey, allowing them to discover the proposed home and the life they could lead there. The target consumer was identified as time poor and likely international. With this in mind the site needed to achieve two things beyond showing the home; firstly it must convey the core information quickly and have an instant impact, secondly it needs to communicate information about the locations to someone who may never have heard of Henley let along Watlington.
To achieve this we started with spaciousness, making the stunning location and views a key part of all the marketing materials as they lend themselves to the lifestyle being sold. Key information about the planned home and the locality sit alongside beautifully crafted CGI of the house itself making it easy to take in the facts and figures.
With the ability to flick through the digital brochure, view the floor plans and watch the lifestyle led video all on the site, potential buyers can fully understand the exciting opportunity on offer with minimal effort. Highwood House is a prime example of the role a website plays in an integrated marketing strategy for a luxury property. Contact us to discuss how your next project can benefit from this kind of marketing.
In the press
The Power of: The Website
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Walktrue Workshop: REDD
To further explain the power of the brochure and clarify how it works in practice, we are going to look at how we approached REDD, one of our client’s brochure projects.
REDD is an established Monegasque real estate development company who, having partnered with renowned development manager Russell Smithers, is launching REDD London. The team wanted to use the opportunity to review everything from branding to website and marketing collateral.
The brief
The client requested implementation of their new branding in print materials which reflected the premium nature of the brand. Although already established, they wanted to use the rebranding to crystallise the company’s image with elegant and timeless appeal that would sit comfortably next to the very best in luxury names while also standing out.
Walktrue worked with the team early in the process on initial logo concepts and, as a result, were later asked to roll out the finalised branding into the REDD brochure, which we designed.
The REDD strategy
To evoke a high end feeling we knew that the REDD brochure needed to embody the words spacious and luxurious. We achieved this by utilising a limited colour pallet and using abstract imagery such as textures, rather than traditional real estate images. The minimal use of colour not only allows the other design aspects to speak for themselves but also lends itself to a variety of other marketing materials such as on site PPE, clothing and even company umbrellas.
Combining these minimalist and effective design choices with lots of white space and perfectly prioritised information we ensured the brochure reflected the core principles that REDD apply to their developments without loosing their unique approach.
We tied in the aspirational aspect of the brief by using high quality, natural looking, lifestyle photography which we colour graded for brand consistency and added the REDD logo to. Again the images used are not typical real estate images but are more lifestyle-led focusing on the dream life which can be lived out in one of their developments.
To finalise this clean and light brochure and ensure it evoked the elegant feeling the client requested we contrasted the bold images with more subtle text. Giving the images and text room to breathe was key in maintaining the opulence of the brochure as a whole.
The brochure we created for REDD clearly demonstrates how design elements can be used to make your brochure say more than just the words you include in it. With real estate brochures still being a popular and expected part of the real estate buying process, making yours stand out is evermore difficult but also evermore important. Contact us to discuss how we can breathe new life into your printed marketing materials.
In the press
The Power of: The Brochure
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Walktrue Workshop: Kuwait Cultural Centre
To elaborate on our post about the power of photography and video we want to take a deep dive into one of our projects which demonstrates what the theory looks like when put into action; the Kuwait Cultural Centre.
The Walktrue team were honoured to be asked to create the official opening video for the JACC Kuwait Cultural Centre. With a budget of $775 million dollars and the project being one of the biggest ever completed in Kuwait this was a complex job but one which deserved excellence from the Walktrue team.
The brief
The client requested a video which was to appear on national television and a series of photos for various international publications and news outlets. They were clear that the video shouldn’t simply explore the space but should explore the journey from construction to completion as well as the whole ethos behind the project.
As a cultural centre, the project aims to “assist in exploring Kuwait’s past, cultivating its present and imagining potential futures.” The space is designed to offer inspiration, cultural education and community to all generations; striving to entertain, educate and inspire the people of Kuwait through a range of events such as music, theatre, film, workshops and spoken word.
The Kuwait Cultural Centre strategy
The team was brought on a week before the grand opening. With only 3 days to shoot the whole development and 3 more days to edit and get the film ready for the presentation, it was an intense week for all of us. The video was due to be played on prime time national television so everything had to be ready.
Our team consisted of three cameramen, a producer, a director, a stills photographer and two editors. With such a tight turnaround we off-lined footage every day so that editing could be carried out in the background while the camera team and director could continue to work.
Attention was given to the unique design of the building as well as the cultural opportunities the centre gives to the Kuwaiti population. We focused on how the JACC provides a space for dialogue, sharing and showcasing skills and knowledge and giving younger voices a forum in which to speak. Our team also took care to keep Kuwait’s cultural identity in mind by including a modern, avant-garde and experimental approach to their work.
The final video demonstrates that the cultural centre is more than its stunning architectural design, but exists to provide a platform for educational and cultural exchange and to be an influential entertainment and culture powerhouse and productive space for the region.
After screening on national television the content was cut into smaller, bite-sized videos for social media and other channels and the photography was used national publications and newspapers as well as the centres digital platforms.
The Kuwait Cultural Centre is an excellent example of how video can be utilised to show more than the physical appearance of a space. For lifestyle and experiential marketing, video is an essential piece of the puzzle.