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Client: Carlyle Place, Macon, GA
Marketing Challenge:
This Continuing Care Retirement Center (CCRC),
sponsored by the renowned Medical Center of Central Georgia,
was a new concept in retirement living to be introduced to
this area. Governmental regulations required the up-scale housing
units at Carlyle Place to be 70% pre-sold before building could
begin. Without a physical structure to show potential home
buyers, Carlyle Place needed a way to pre-sell the concept
and to dispel the prevailing rumor that the new community was
exclusive and unaffordable for the average couple approaching
retirement.
The Idea:
Develop an innovative way, apart from print ads and
brochures, to tell the Carlyle Place story in a compelling way.
What We Did:
Many marketing tactics were unsuccessfully tried by others before
we agreed upon an advertorial format allowing us to tell the
C/P story from the viewpoints of several high-profile charter
residents who were already sold on the benefits of the CCRC concept.
As an advertorial in broadsheet form inserted in the local daily
paper, individuals’ stories could be told, cost comparison
charts and locator maps could be featured, and other subjective
information could be effectively imparted.
The Results:
The first insert, featuring interviews with individuals and couples
already invested in Carlyle Place, was a decided success, garnering
several new sales when no other medium could. It was followed
by five additional inserts, each successful in driving additional
new sales. The pre-sales were sufficient to break ground on schedule
in October, 2001. Today, Carlyle Place is a thriving community,
a model for CCRCs across the US Southeast.
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