Category: Case Studies

What Does a PR Agency Do? Our Coffee Cares Video

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Newland Communities, the country’s most prominent privately held residential developer, unveiled its newest master-planned community – Wendell Falls – in the spring of 2015. Wendell Falls is situated in a relatively undeveloped section of Wake County, and when it experienced a lull in traffic, Newland turned to Clairemont Communications to re-engage prospective homebuyers and increase interest during slower winter months.

Strategy and Execution

As part of a larger strategic approach, Clairemont crafted a campaign that leveraged a foodie trend by highlighting Grounds Café, the on-site cafe, and its sustainable approach to sourcing. Clairemont created a video targeting food influencers as well as homebuyers in the Triangle with the objective of ultimately helping increase interest and traffic at Wendell Falls in the month of December by 50 percent, as compared to 2015.

This story would create an additional cultural appeal beyond just housing products. But instead of relying on editorial articles or paid advertising, Clairemont chose to also tell the story via a video featuring personal interviews. Visual mediums like this are easily sharable and have proven to generate higher interest from viewers as well as produce higher engagement on social media.

Results

The Grounds Café video secured the highest number of views for any Facebook video at that time posted by Wendell Falls. In addition, Wendell Falls experienced a distinct uptick in traffic, experiencing an 81.6 percent increase in December 2016, as compared to December 2015. Since then, we’ve converted followers into fans; Raleigh influencers and foodies regularly visit Grounds, posting pictures and touting Wendell Falls to their 50,000+ followers on social media.

The work Clairemont Communications conducted in partnership with Wendell Falls earned an Award of Excellence and a Best in Category from the North Carolina Public Relations Society of America for our video “Our Coffee Cares.” It also received a Gold Award in Video/Podcast/Videocast from the Raleigh Public Relations Society. We are proud that this campaign represents one of the 175 awards we’ve received since starting Clairemont in 2010.

To read more about the work we do with clients, please visit the case study section of our blog.

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What Does a PR Agency Do? Briar Chapel’s Spicy App

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More exposure and higher attendance were the goals of the Briar Chapel marketing team as it planned its 9th Annual Pepper Festival to support North Carolina agriculture. Briar Chapel is one of the largest master-planned green communities in Raleigh-Durham and part of Newland Communities, the country’s largest private residential real estate developer. It turned to Clairemont Communications to reengage past festival participants and grab the attention of new audiences.

Strategy

Clairemont spiced up Briar Chapel’s approach with a creative social media personality quiz designed to promote the Pepper Festival to Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill residents. Clairemont had two objectives in mind: to increase visibility for the Pepper Festival and build third-party credibility for the event.

Execution

Spark Social Sharing

Clairemont wanted to expand the event’s social media strategy to incorporate a fun, interactive approach that would attract audiences untapped by traditional efforts. We researched the most effective types of personality quizzes and crafted a short online experience that would encourage users to share with a network of friends across multiple platforms, hence organically expanding the festival’s visibility.

“How Spicy Is Your Personality?” Quiz!

Rather than settle for traditional promotions, Clairemont turned up the heat to design an interactive social media quiz that piqued viewers’ interest with a play on words: “How Spicy is Your Personality?” For an unexpected twist, we crafted seven short questions that had little connection with festivals, food, peppers or Briar Chapel. Instead, the quiz featured queries like “What’s your getaway vehicle?” or “Pick Your Poison” – a question followed by four beverage choices ranging from wine to milk with cookies. The quiz posed other clever questions like “If your pants were on fire, you would …” and “your favorite hot spot is …” to emphasize the heat theme of the event. Clairemont peppered the content with twists of wit and humor along with themed verbiage connected to spice, fire and heat commensurate with the Pepper Festival.

The Spicy Personality Results

Once users took the quiz, they found results that stretched beyond the expected, standard “mild, medium or hot” descriptions. Instead, Clairemont crafted five positive personality types that featured popular phrases or song lyrics related to heat, fire and smoke. These descriptions told people if they were a Mild Child, a Sweet Heat, a Spiced Just Right, a Firecracker or a Flamethrower, which contributed to our goal of unexpected and quirky content.

Participants could then share their prescription and accompanying image on Facebook, encouraging friends to take the quiz as well. The quiz also included an opportunity for viewers to enter for a chance to win tickets to the 2016 Pepper Festival, along with details and links to the festival.

Results

Clairemont exceeded each of its objectives of quiz shares, visits and entries, boosted attendance by 10 percent and rolled out the largest festival to date.

The work Clairemont Communications conducted in partnership with Briar Chapel earned an Award of Excellence for Creative Tactics and an Honorable Mention for Social Media from the North Carolina Public Relations Society of America. We are proud that this campaign represents two of the 175 awards we’ve received since starting Clairemont in 2010.

To read more about the work we do with clients, please visit the case study section of our blog.

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What Does a PR Agency Do? Wendell Falls Busts Real Estate Myths

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Newland Communities, the country’s most prominent privately held residential developer, launched its newest master-planned community – Wendell Falls – in May 2015. Newland turned to Clairemont Communications to showcase the strengths of eastern Wake County and unveil the community as the conveniently located living destination that it is.

Strategy

Clairemont crafted a strategy that incorporated media relations, special events and community partnerships. Since research showed that buyers valued a sense of community, our methods highlighted the fun, relational atmosphere at Wendell Falls and provided opportunities for audiences to interact with the brand, whether through online campaigns or in-person events. 

Method

The Hoedown Showdown: Clairemont worked with Wendell Falls to plan a barn-raising themed celebration to commemorate the community’s first anniversary. Clairemont created the Wendell Falls Hoedown Showdown, a celebrity square-dancing competition hosted at the anniversary event. We invited TV, print and online personalities to do-si-do for a little dough ($1,000) to donate to a charity of his or her choice. Media received creative invitations that included a “wanted” poster and a cowboy hat, which one TV reporter even sported on her morning show! Clairemont successfully recruited nine media representatives to compete and another three influencers to judge the competition, resulting in print and television coverage as well as influencer posts to approximately 52,200 followers on Twitter alone.

Jam with Us! – Community Events: To attract prospective homebuyers, Clairemont ditched standard home tours and helped to launch a series of creative on-site events. Since the information center is called the “Farmhouse,” the team rolled out Farmhouse Jams, an outdoor summer concert series featuring local bands and Grounds Café’s “brews and brews,” the on-site café’s beer and coffee. Holiday Sip and Shops attracted home shoppers to peruse Raleigh’s finest hand-crafted gifts, and open-house weekends were transformed into themed celebrations highlighting unexpected home features.

Hand-in-Hand – Partnerships: Clairemont aligned Wendell Falls with key local organizations to increase visibility and connection with the community. For example, during the Eastern Carolina Farm Tour, Wendell Falls launched a family friendly party bus to chauffeur families to tour local farms while they enjoyed, food, beverages and activities.

And…action! – Videos: To combat the perception that Wendell Falls is remotely located, Clairemont conceptualized a “Faster Than” video challenge. Team members “raced” in their cars from a starting point in downtown Raleigh to several prominent suburbs, including Wendell Falls. The contest, captured via mounted GoPro cameras, revealed that drivers can get to Wendell Falls from downtown Raleigh faster than to other surrounding areas. Clairemont also created a video – titled “Our Coffee Cares” – to unveil the story of the Guatemalan family that selects and sources the coffee for Grounds, the on-site café at Wendell Falls.

Beyond the Books – School Campaign: Clairemont did a little homework to bust the myth that the area’s education was subpar. Based on extensive tours and interviews, we first developed a resource to “unveil your child’s future.” This brochure, webpage and blog series highlighted Wendell’s “hidden gem” – a surprising variety of academic options, programs and tracks. The campaign prompted the marketing manager to dub it “the best school tool we’ve had to date!”

Creative Media Pitches: Clairemont brainstormed creative angles beyond home construction to pique the interest of reporters. Our pitches showcased Wendell Falls’ commitment to green building along with the vibrant community lifestyle.

Results

In direct correlation with our stated objectives above, we met every goal, exceeded expectations and produced the following results:

  1. Clairemont secured a total of 13 news stories and blogs.
  2. Special events drew an aditional 1,800 people on-site.
  3. Home sales increased by 250 percent in 2016.

Clairemont successfully positioned Wendell Falls as one of the top places to live in Wake County, efforts that have helped Wendell Falls meet its annual sales goal and earned the community the title as Best Master Planned Community in East Wake County by The News & Observer.

The work Clairemont Communications conducted in partnership with Wendell Falls earned a Platinum Award in Organizational Identity/Promotion from the Raleigh Public Relations Society. We are proud that this campaign represents two of the 175 awards we’ve received since starting Clairemont in 2010.

To read more about the work we do with clients, please visit the case study section of our blog.

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What Does a PR Agency Do? A Taste of Italy at Il Palio

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Il Palio, Chapel Hill’s AAA-rated Four Diamond Italian restaurant, was in the midst of a $1 million renovation, featuring a fresh look and a revamped menu by its new chef, Teddy Diggs. Il Palio turned to Clairemont Communications to create a social media strategy that would refresh the restaurant’s image and win the hearts of young diners.

Social Media Strategy

Clairemont’s “Taste of Italy” campaign leveraged the clout of food and culinary influencers to generate awareness among the target demographic – millennial diners – and increase traffic to Il Palio. Clairemont chose to harness the broad reach of social media to efficiently and rapidly boost Il Palio’s image to a large audience.

Execution

VIP dinners at Il Palio.

Customized Experiences: Il Palio hosted a “Foodie Funday” dinner where Chef Teddy selected dishes for each blogger’s preferences. Who wouldn’t want the chef’s creation customized just for you? Chef Teddy also invited a prominent blogger into the kitchen to co-create a proprietary pizza that he named after her and featured on his menu. Chef Teddy handcrafted The Perfect Date Night Dinner for another blogger and his wife. The personalized touch struck home, producing a flurry of coverage on social media and blogs, and securing reservations.

Instagram Takeovers: To reach broader audiences, Clairemont crafted Instagram takeovers to share a visual “taste” of Teddy’s cooking. Chef Teddy helmed the Instagram of StarChefs – a culinary publication with more than 30,000 followers – during his annual trip to Italy, unveiling first his inspiration abroad and then the application back at Il Palio. In preparation for the Atlanta Food and Wine Festival, he creatively shared “a day in the life of a man who plays with fire,” with the festival’s Instagram followers, showcasing his wood-fired grill dishes. These partnerships increased visibility and boost Il Palio’s own social media metrics.

Il Palio’s Instagram Takeover with StarChefs.

Results

Il Palio – boosted by diner reviews – earned a Gold Medal from food critics as a “2016 Best Restaurant in the Triangle.” Clairemont met every goal, exceeded expectations in addition to the following results:

  1. 10 media articles/posts, reaching a combined followership of more than 50,000 followers on Twitter alone
  2. Instagram takeovers in 2016 showcased the renovated restaurant, new menu and staff personality to approximately 45,000 followers

The work Clairemont Communications conducted in partnership with Il Palio earned a Best in Category in Social Media and an Award of Excellence in Social Media from the North Carolina Public Relations Society of America. It also earned a Platinum Award in Social Media from the Raleigh Public Relations Society. We are proud that this campaign represents two of the 175 awards we’ve received since starting Clairemont in 2010.

To read more about the work we do with clients, please visit the case study section of our blog.

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What Does a PR Agency Do? Briar Chapel Unveils Encore

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Briar Chapel is one of the largest master-planned green communities in North Carolina and part of Newland Communities, the country’s most prominent privately held residential real estate developer. As Briar Chapel prepared to launch Encore, its new age-qualified section, marketing managers turned to Clairemont Communications to gain visibility and roll out this distinctive offering to homebuyers ages 55 years and older.

Strategy: Feature Story

Clairemont crafted a comprehensive public relations campaign designed to gain visibility and support home sales for Encore. As a key element in this strategy, Clairemont set an objective to secure a feature story in The Original Relocation Guide prior to Encore’s grand opening that highlighted the age-qualified section’s features and lifestyle appeal. To gain maximum exposure, we aimed to secure this story in a local publication with a followership of at least 300,000 that targeted homebuyers. 

Execution

Clairemont recognized that feature stories often secure greater exposure with more opportunity to tell a complete, in-depth narrative than news briefs or short blurbs. Encore included a distinct set of lifestyle offerings that few other locations in the country could claim, so a larger feature story was critical to thoroughly depicting the character of the new section. The Original Location Guide, with its large readership in North Carolina, provided the perfect vehicle to share the news.

Clairemont crafted a creative, out-of-the-box angle designed to grab the attention of busy editors. Our initial hook leveraged the exclusivity that Encore offered, since it was only the second of its kind in the country. While this newsy tidbit might have been worth a local newspaper mention, we recognized the need for a more engaging story that would appeal to The Original Relocation Guide’s informative yet warm tone. We invited them to share a “how to” segment that tapped on both the desire to share fresh news as well as equipping the editors with a DIY approach for their home shoppers.

Results

Clairemont met the stated objective and far exceeded expectations. The feature story in The Original Relocation Guide highlighted the distinct character of Encore while positioning Briar Chapel (cited as the author) as a thought leader in the retirement industry to its circulation of 470,000. Published prior to the grand opening, the feature article prompted interest from prospects, and Encore secured a full waiting list of homebuyers by grand opening date.

The work Clairemont Communications conducted in partnership with Briar Chapel received a “Best in Category” award in the 2017 InSpire Awards. We are proud that this campaign represents one of the 175 awards we’ve received since starting Clairemont in 2010. To read more about the work we do with clients, please visit the case study section of our blog.

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