White Space Design has flown in the face of a gloomy property market by providing positive results for their portfolio of property marketing clients
Success breeds success. That’s certainly true at full-service creative agency White Space Design in Ipswich. In the face of what is still a pretty gloomy property market, White Space has continued to buck the trend, achieving brilliant results for an ever-growing portfolio of happy property marketing and PR clients.
Account Director, Will Wright, takes up the story: “We must be doing something right as 2012 was another fantastic year for the agency and 2013 is already off to a flying start!
“As well as attracting opportunities to work with FW Properties and Jackson, Stops and Staff, many of our existing clients have come back to us with new projects, which is a real vote of confidence and backs up what we’ve always believed; give us a chance to show you what we can do and you won’t look back.”
White Space has worked with some of the most respected names in property development for almost 10 years; including work at home and overseas for large multi-nationals like Crest Nicholson, Linden Homes and Grosvenor, as well as more bespoke developers like Banner Homes, Hill Residential and Highland Ltd.
Will continues: “We’ve been around for a while now and this longevity has been achieved by our ability to bring fresh ideas to the table and offer new ways of responding to creative challenges. We don’t tell our clients things they already know and we always aim to offer a little something extra that they might not get elsewhere.
“It’s fair to say we produce our best work for companies who share our values and understand the vital role marketing and PR plays in helping them to grow. Whether it’s one of the little guys or a huge global brand, we love to be challenged and will always try to create a targeted campaign that works as hard as they do!
“Ours is a boutique property marketing service without the lavish price tag you might associate with a London agency.”
With online, social media and mobile technology in the ascendency, how does White Space ensure their clients are at the very forefront of the digital revolution?
“Property companies can no longer rely purely on traditional advertising channels, like brochures, leaflets and hoarding. I’d even argue that having a great looking website isn’t enough these days.
“Things are changing rapidly on the digital side, so savvy Sales & Marketing Directors should be considering Augmented Reality smartphone apps to bring their latest development to life, GPS and Location Based Services, interactive touch screen installations, search engine marketing, targeted email campaigns and regular social media updates, broadcasting relevant information and engaging content in real time.”
Digital marketing is hugely popular because it’s fully measurable and allows marketers to track and analyse user behaviour, but you’d be forgiven for having reservations over the potential costs involved in harnessing one of these new technologies.
Will is quick to set minds at ease; “These exciting new innovations really aren’t as expensive as you might think and they’re certainly nothing to be intimidated by. We could quickly get you up and running with a custom smartphone app that would allow site visitors to scan an empty plot then visualise the home that will stand upon it. They might even take a virtual tour of the rooms!
“We’re all about offering cost-effective, high impact marketing solutions with real wow factor, and we’re of the firm belief that value for money doesn’t have to mean compromising on quality. Our clients wouldn’t dream of cutting corners on their developments and neither would we.”
Increasingly, property companies are looking to have all their creative needs taken care of under one roof, often to ridiculous deadlines and with more modest budgets than were previously available. Does Will think this has caused standards to drop and marketing collateral to suffer as a result?
“I can only speak for our approach here at White Space and we certainly wouldn’t allow our work to become slapdash simply because the client has less money to spend, quite the opposite in fact. A leaner budget means we have to be more creative about how and where we spend it, and that’s exactly the kind of strategic challenge we relish.
“We pride ourselves on not only delivering brilliant creative, but also proactive project management that makes our clients’ lives that little bit easier. They’ve got enough on their plate as a new development rises from the foundations, so using a trusted one-stop shop like ourselves makes perfect sense.
“We’re driven by results and understand the need to turn every pound invested in marketing into more pounds. This has always been our primary objective, but it’s especially important in times of austerity where every penny counts. The Sales & Marketing Director is usually our best friend on a project, but the Financial Director is a very close second!”
With new pitch wins under their belt, another recruitment drive underway and lots of high profile opportunities in the pipeline it seems the future is bright for White Space.
“We launched a new video production arm towards the end of last year, which has already brought in several exciting projects, and we’re in the process of recruiting another SEO Specialist to bolster our busy digital team. That’s on top of our apprenticeships and intern schemes, which we’ve been running for a few years now to give a leg up to young people trying to break into the highly competitive creative industry.
“It takes a certain amount of good fortune for a business to thrive in a recession, but to borrow a quote from one of my golfing heroes, Gary Player; the harder we work, the luckier we get! I’m just pleased that our passion and enthusiasm is coming across in the work we’re delivering and our clients are really embracing our clear, concise and creative approach.”
For more information, visit www.white-spacedesign.com
