Chestnut Hill Village Apartments, an AIMCO multifamily community just outside of Philadelphia, found a smart way to get residents working together on a project to make a charity donation. Events Coordinator Christine Gaddie told us about one of her successes with the food drive she called FILL A CART FOR A NEIGHBOR IN NEED. For in-your-face visual impact, the marketing team at Chestnut Hill Village used an actual grocery cart donated by a local supermarket to build a display in the clubhouse.
Christine says the marketing campaign was chosen from the library at Beyond Wine & Cheese Marketing, posters for the leasing office and door hangers for each apartment, featuring a photograph of a shopping cart and the FILL A CART headline.
“We promoted the event to our residents and prospects with collateral and had a huge result. Our residents responded enthusiastically to fill the cart with nonperishable food items which were donated to the local food bank.”
Setting the promotion time line to last 30 days gave both residents and prospects a chance to donate and watch the grocery cart begin to overflow with food. And, the promotion came at a time when food banks were in the news headlines due to a shortage of supplies. Tapping into this current event allowed Chestnut Hill Village to benefit from the positive public relations that comes from being a good neighbor in a time of need.
The team at Illumina on Lake Union, an Epic Asset Management multifamily community, filled a different need by hosting a School Supply Drive. Manager Amber Dunlop distributed posters inviting residents to add pencils, paper and crayons to the cardboard collection bins for the neighborhood schools. Amber says the main goal was to help students in need but the leasing staff at Illumina Apartments found a hidden benefit: a valuable new outreach relationship with the school district, one of the largest employers in their zip code.
Have you noticed the common denominator in the Illumina on Lake Union and Chestnut Hill Village apartment promotions? Both are examples of guerilla marketing at it’s finest, the kind that doesn’t use up a line item in the budget. By using a donated cart display and cardboard collection bins, this apartment marketing opportunity was free.

March 2, 2010
Categories: Uncategorized . Tags: apartment marketing, outreach marketing, apartment events, resident events, apartment guerilla marketing, multifamily events for charity, marketing door hangers, marketing posters, apartment collateral, leasing office posters, school district outreach, multifamily community, apartment events coordinator, marketing team, apartment promotions . Author: beyondwineandcheese

Leave a Comment

No comments yet.

Comments RSS TrackBack Identifier URI