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When developer Henry Harper was creating The Filling Station, his vision was to bring cutting-edge, authentic New York-style loft living to South Florida, but he feared his vision would get lost in the ‘condo-ad-shuffle’ of cookie-cutter magazine ads where scantily clad women look longingly at their poolside reflections. Wanting to reach several demographics including moneyed out-of-towners looking for a living space in Miami, and Miami’s ultra-hip new players, he turned to Southern Brand Collective to get his message in front of the right people. from the start it was clear, traditional media vehicles would not resonate with the desired demographic that Harper had in mind.
SBC first crafted untraditional advertising that truly reflected the developer’s vision, and our next job was getting folks talking about it. We wanted to get across the feeling of NYC circa 1977. Party people going places on the D train. Harring, J.M. and Schnabel. B-Boying and Graf Writers. The Roots of Hip. The Ground Floor.
A sophisticated but basically grassroots way of marketing to a specific group of people, or ‘narrowcasting’ was employed. We sent out street teams to high profile events that attract hip consumers. Events like Art Basel and the White Party. We knew who we had to get in front of, but we had fairly little time to do it, so we hit the streets.
SBC equipped street teams with a collection of kitschy novelty items featuring simply a web address (http://www.fillingstationmiami.com), and an assortment of brief messages (“Monster Chic”, “Tall, Bright and Handsome”, “Ultra-Ultra Lofties”, “Slogan”, etc.) meant to pique interest. The items featured over 25 different designs, all driving traffic to the web address but more importantly building talk and curiosity about The Filling Station.
Shortly after that, SBC distributed 5,000 copies of “Life-Size”, an oversized magazine named for the loft’s 18-foot ceilings. This opened a new avenue for The Filling Station to pitch their messages while creating genuinely interesting reading.
Featuring fiction, DVD, CD and book reviews (as well as info about the building itself) this free standing marketing tool also relates back to the promotional items by including design elements from those pieces to create an integrated vision. And at the same time generate a real working magazine/oversize newspaper, albeit one with a one-of-a-kind, Filling Station point of view.
“It helps when the client is adventurous as this one is” says agency founder Chris Romero. “The Filling Station is a great client who wants to do great things…we found ways to do just that. The work is phenomenal and gratifying—and as it turned out, was more economical than going the traditional routes. we set our goals early and accomplished some aspect of those goals every step of the way. That’s not the norm down here…it’s very good. We twisted the category and found a fresh approach.”
With the goal of getting The Filling Station on everyone’s lips and generating buzz, the campaign was a resounding success. Less than a month after the launch and well before the grand opening, over 70% of the building (which started at $400,000) was sold out.
