If you have never been to the Sarasota region of Florida (or ever even heard of it), it’s one hell of a place. Local residential real estate maven Michael Saunders could tell you stories of this place that give it even more magic than you feel as a visitor. Crafting a content strategy that would share their company’s local knowledge strategically with their audiences was both challenging and joyful.
Work completed at 1000watt
When a major differentiator for your brand is local knowledge, you have the opportunity to really deliver on what that looks and sounds like.
This was no easy feat. I don’t want to over-indulge the challenge, but I also want to focus on how complicated this was. We had a very strong case—evidenced, supported and purely logical. Bringing it to life required complete buy-in and belief (bring on the decks!) Ultimately, through a sequence of show-and-tell we had connected the effort to the ROI. We were excited about the myriad of ways this content could live in the world and deepen the meaning of this core differentiator.
Dare to be authentic
So many companies within this space are obsessed with the perfection of a stock photo. Brands are willing to sacrifice the ‘real,’ for the ‘artificial,’ because they’re addicted to the control using stock assets bring. It can be daunting to own your content completely. My argument is that there is no other way to be an authentic brand. How do you show others what delights you? What you see as important? Internal and external audiences alike gravitate to this type of content in a powerful way.
Maintaining standards
Continuity in storytelling is a whopping challenge, especially when you consider that agents are in reality independent contractors, not salaried employees. The way they express knowledge of a region can range from highly local to barely any at all. We found that this misrepresentation can reflect poorly on the brand, and the agents who represent the brand with more experience. Developing these community stories not only accomodate the external audience, but the internal stakeholders new to the company and/or the region.
Be the curator
An interesting angle on sharing this content was one I learned about from the director of Visit Sarasota, the local tourism board. There is a well defined pathway to new residents that starts with short family vacations and progresses through stages of increased love for the area. Identifying these patterns and partnering with some of the larger vacation rental operators allows Michael Saunders & Co. the opportunity to bring the larger region to life through beautiful content and magnetic stories.
A key touchpoint of this content strategy was the online repository for these stories. Nested within the microsite we designed and built for the larger brand, these community pages offered an editorial environment for words, images and feels. A goal for these stories was to sell the area, and through that effort build a connection to the brand similar to the connection the brand has for the area. The care, the intention and the production value of these stories reinforces the reverence Michael Saunders & Co. has for the area. This was less about marketing and all about brand.
Striking the right chord was top priority. We developed guidelines around the voice and tone while creating stringent instructions about how to develop the substance of each story. In so many cases it came down to a single word choice. The goal was to deliver information through the lens of a local who has grown up in that community—personal, approachable and intimate.
