Services provided

• Brand development
• Media relations
• Social media
• Digital content strategy
• Strategic partnerships
• Event creation and planning

CHALLENGE

TLofts is an ecofriendly condominium development on the westside of Los Angeles. The project is comprised of 84 loft units with open, flexible floor plans, and a percentage of the homes were designed as live/work units. During the construction phase of the project, T Lofts’ sales center was located on a main thoroughfare parallel to the project and surrounded by 2.5 million square feet of office space occupied by more than 7,000 professionals (a substantial pool of potential buyers).

The project faced two major challenges. Planned during boom times, sales were to begin during the economic downturn on an industrial street sandwiched between two storage facilities. How to connect with potential buyers during the most difficult real estate market in recent history? How to convince trendy Angelenos that TLofts was a hip destination with superior design? While we knew there were a lot of young professionals (our target market) working in the massive amount of office space just a block away, we weren’t allowed to market the project to them, so how could we let them know that TLofts existed? Our challenge was clear, and welcomed.

STRATEGIES & TACTICS

During this time, the L.A. food truck craze was in its infancy and NewGround, always looking for ways to tap into trends, approached the owners of the Kogi Korean BBQ truck, which was frequented largely by young professionals, and proposed that they show up at the TLofts sales center at lunch time. Up until then, the food truck had only ever parked at bars and entertainment venues in the late evening, so we explained that thousands of professionals worked across the street and the intersection at which the sales center was located saw more than 100,000 car trips each day. The owners of the food truck quickly agreed. We joined forces with Kogi’s owners and took advantage of another emerging trend – Twitter – to tweet out the first-of-its-kind event and location.

• Joined forces with established food trucks to expand audience reach
• Customized and targeted regional and national pitches
• Bylined articles

MAJOR ACCOMPLISHMENTS

Before the Kogi truck showed up on the first day we could see people coming out of the surrounding offices and heading over to the sales center. More than 100 people were waiting as the truck arrived. Many were tweeting, texting, and emailing their friends and colleagues about the truck’s location, and the TLofts name went viral. Many of those in line went into the sales center and we heard some call friends and tell them about the project. We also received calls at the sales center with people saying they couldn’t make it to eat at the truck that day but wanted information about TLofts.

The experience was so successful for the Kogi owners that they asked to come back every Thursday. Eventually, other food trucks caught on and we had a different food truck parked at the sales center and eventually the project itself every day. This resulted in a massive amount of online attention for TLofts and made the project become a destination for exactly the demographic the developer needed to reach.

As the food truck phenomenon at TLofts became a bonafide success, a tragic earthquake struck the island nation of Haiti. Images of tragedy and calls for help filled the airwaves. NewGround asked the food trucks and American Red Cross to participate in a fundraiser to benefit the survivors. Four days after the devastating event, 26 trucks gathered at TLofts with the promise to donate part or all of their earnings for the day to the Red Cross for Haiti earthquake relief. NewGround and the food truck owners tweeted in the days leading up to the event, followers retweeted, and more than 5,000 people showed up. The media took notice. As more people visited, many toured the lofts and alerted home-shopping friends. Quickly, sales were brisk.

• Raised additional capital
• Promoted the “Better” by Design” program
• Drive traffic and sales to the new home communities