Thu 3 Jul 2008
July - Village green
Building a truly sustainable community is hard enough. Marketing it is a challenge in itself. Cheryl Markosky reports."Advertising is the art of convincing people to spend money they don't have for something they don't need."
Or so says American wit Will Rogers. You could argue that he is probably right. We are enticed to part with our cash for any number of items we do not really require and that cannot be classified as necessities.
However, a property is a necessity. After all, what can be more necessary than having a roof over one's head? Of course, you need to extract must-have second homes in Rock and luxury Majorcan villas with infinity pools and swanky terraces from this argument, which are pretty hard to classify as bare necessities, particularly in the current credit crunch.
This month's marketing campaign is an intriguing mix of how to sell a necessity - a country home where the owner will simply reside - with its eco-friendly credentials, including cool extras like an allotment thrown in with each home.
Bob Tomlinson and Carole Salmon were on a mission to market an entirely new housing concept with their company Living Villages' niche scheme of 40 houses ranging from cosy two-bedroom bungalows to spacious six-bed houses at The Wintles in Bishop's Castle, Shropshire.
"A typical house builder would view The Wintles as abnormal because we don't think of it as a development at all, but as a neighbourhood that is part of the old local village of Bishop's Castle," says Tomlinson, who came up with the concept of creating a green, friendly, sustainable community back in 1994 when he set up The Living Village Trust with Salmon.
"Because this energy efficient project is so out of the ordinary, it made no sense to come up with the usual Balmorals and Windsors displayed in a glossy brochure," Tomlinson explains. Instead, it was deemed more apt to talk about lifestyle. Not the kind of lifestyle normally portrayed in new development literature where impossibly glamorous couples sip Bolly and slurp oysters on a steel and glass balcony, but how the 12 residents who have already bought houses at The Wintles really live.
With 15 million Britons professing they want to move to a village location, according to research carried out by Living Villages, Tomlinson and Salmon started to get their message of a low carbon lifestyle across early on in the project via their website, putting across subtle pieces of information. "This was not about buying a five-bedroom house in a particular place, but about living in a different way. It took a bit of explaining and we couldn't use analysis to do comparisons with other schemes, as there weren't any," points out Tomlinson.
"The goal of the campaign was to generate recognition of the value of developments like The Wintles to potential purchasers, the local community, planners, government and even other house builders," says Elizabeth Tagge, public relations guru from BlueIce Communications, who handles this unusual account.
Tagge describes working on the campaign as "a dream come true, because the clients really believe in what they are doing and they understand the value of imagery. They also have incredible knowledge and experience in their field and have travelled to Cornwall, Devon, Kenya and Borneo to visit successful sustainable communities to get ideas."
But the perfect campaign started off as anything but. The headline in the local paper screamed: 'Hippies take over executive homes.'
"It was horrific," admits Tomlinson. "We kept getting enquiries from people who wanted to park a bus on site and bring their bedrolls."
But luckily, some of the broadsheet journalists liked what Living Villages was trying to achieve with aesthetically pleasing and sustainable timber-framed houses built with heavy wood beams and exterior long lasting larch boarding, surrounded by specially planted fruit trees providing a natural cocoon. "This year, the local paper ran a front page piece in a special eco supplement on Living Villages, which demonstrates how quickly things have evolved," Tagge points out.
The joy of this campaign is how little has been spent on advertising. Tomlinson says he spent under £10,000 on the advice of an estate agent, which produced virtually no returns. So, he steered his remaining limited budget towards PR and good web design and brochures.
Salmon, a talented photographer since she was a young girl, shot beguiling photographs of the site from the start and as the houses started to take shape. Her images have helped convey the spirit of the project to wannabe buyers, locals and other house builders who have taken an interest in what Living Villages is trying to achieve.
Tomlinson has spent about £35,000 over the last year on PR, getting BlueIce to deal with the many enquiries that are coming in - "when you consider how small we are, it is quite an accolade we get so many" - and placing stories in the national and local press.
The press coverage has been aided hugely by awards, believes Tagge. The Wintles won a sustainable new home award four years ago. When Grand Designs' presenter Kevin McCloud presented the award to Living Villages he said: "This award shows that you don't have to live in a mud hut or tree house to do your bit for the planet. As developers start to think more creatively about the homes they design, sustainable living will increasingly become an option for us all."
The Wintles also won a Royal Town Planning Institute award for a significant contribution to town planning in the West Midlands and an environmental award at the Worcester Bosch environmental awards.
During the second phase of marketing from 2006, the website was rebuilt by web designer Ron Chambers from Abovo Creative in Cambridge. "Originally, we used the web as a large part of the communications strategy," says Chambers, "but we moved on to wanting to adapt and publicise what was happening quickly."
Atypically, Chambers was taken to the coalface to see what was happening for himself and while on site he met the residents who were keen to tell him about why they bought and how they see their village developing.
"As well as a website for Living Villages, we have created a separate website for The Wintles," explains Chambers. "Potential buyers can create their own bespoke brochures by choosing the bits that are appropriate for them." In addition, Chambers has made the system easier for Living Villages' staff to update pictures - the site is very picture-led - blow them up and download them.
A lot of time has been dedicated to producing good case studies of buyers for Tagge and her team to generate press interest and to go onto the website. "These are brutally honest stories from real people," argues Chambers, "and not just PR spin."
He was worried initially that the consultative approach - sales staff, BlueIce team members and residents all have to sign off on the case study pieces - would turn into a nightmare, but "it means we are all getting a totally rounded view of the Living Villages' experience."
Tagge believes Living Villages' ideas are timely, as people are keen to tap into what was considered to be an alternative lifestyle in the Seventies. "They want to plug into a simpler way of living and get back to their roots," she suggests. This has meant placing stories not only in the mainstream press, but also in unusual places like bird-watching publications, Saga, various travel magazines and green publications and websites.
"The campaign has become broader and more fun," Tagge confesses. "We have had to be more creative to get our message across." She equates the longevity of the concept to her little Audi A2 which aren't produced any longer. "It costs only £30 a year to register due to its very low emissions, so has held its value. It is the same buying a sustainable home in the right community - if you look ahead you can see what you will gain in the future."
With over 46 national, consumer, local, trade and online features about The Wintles so far generating over £1.28 million using the equivalent advertising rate, this is not a bad investment in PR terms.
And, at a time when mainstream builders are struggling to shift more standard products, the philosophy behind Living Villages and how they relay that to the public is well worth noting.
Posted by Show House
in Abovo Creative, BlueIce Communications, Bob Tomlinson, Campaign of the Month, Carole Salmon, Elizabeth Tagge, Kevin McCloud, Ron Chambers, Will Rogers on Thu 3 Jul 2008