Primland

The mission required more than a talented team, but a team that would be willing and able to tackle the mission impossible. The goal was to create a stunning visceral experience, a soundproof contingency plan for the impossible timeline timed with the high profile grand reopening event. The delicate art of persuasion and management of the client expectation, and an ability to operate as an interim marketing team added an additional element of uniqueness.

  • Step 1: Discovery and analysis of current brand identity, marketing and publicity strategies, budget allocations, vendor contracts, internal knowledge capacity, political nuances, production feasibility, competitor analysis.

  • Step 2: Create confidence and build trust. Previous staff and vendors mistakes and missteps had created a great deal of obstacles. The client was extremely sensitive to proposals given previous issues and was not prepared with proper budget allocations and expectations as a consequence of prior scenarios. Alignment with client's goals, requests, knowledge gaps, and timing was a key milestone and critical path, which required highly detailed and thorough education sessions.

  • Step 3: Gain buy-in. The client decision-making process required careful consideration of all stakeholders, and those that operated in advisory roles. The strategy, creative and production approach required a clearly defined path and alignment with the competitor analysis results, resource allocation and commitment from the client to provide timely and concise feedback.

  • Step 4: Hire the team. The key to the success of the team was to identify seasoned professionals who possessed a keen sense of aesthetic taste, work ethic, flexibility, worldly/cultured background, broad and specialized industry experience. A team of 13 (not including the eight-person video production crew) international consultants/vendors were identified and hired within a period of two weeks to create the 108+ Website (PHP, html, Flash, jQuery and Javascript™ on WordPress, ActionScript, Cinema 4D) including Flash golf microsite, and rebranded/redesigned print collateral. The majority of the site assets (photography, floor plans, graphic PSD, wireframe, architecture, copy, SEO, 3D modeling) were created and designed from scratch. The SEO team was comprised of two different contractors with different expertise (national upscale hospitality, regional travel and tourism, and local special interest).

  • Step 5: Strategy, positioning and messaging. We knew that this was an unusual place with so many assets and an equal amount of disadvantages. Located in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia, the travel and weather of this plush getaway presented a challenge on all fronts. How do you sell, communicate and bring an audience into the "have to be here to appreciate the experience?" This required extensive international competitor analysis, regional/local/national/international segmentation strategies and a delicate balance of authenticity, simplicity, sophistication, and restrained luxury. Every element of the project required a duality mindset of old meets new, local vs. national or international, authentic vs. modern.

  • Step 6: Concept, design, development, testing. Given the transition timing of the client staffing, the most challenging aspects of the concept through production phases were complicated by the lack of marketing and communications officer/executives and introduction of a full video commercial shoot. The design and production phase was a true pleasure as the team did a spectacular job of working in harmony and communicating all of the key brand components and shifting into parallel design mode given the late acceptance of print branding. The digital team took the lead and delivered full site and development in a neck-breaking period of 10 weeks.

    • Business alignment – increase revenue, expand customer base (golf, activities, accommodations, wedding/events, meeting/events).
    • Customer segmentation-35+ age female and male, 55+ retired couple, cosmopolitan traveler/national & regional, local & regional residents, young professional couples, sports/activities (golf, hunter, nature lover, sport shooting).
    • CRM – e-newsletters, e-card (food & beverage, nature, health & wellness).
    • SEO – build tags and long term seo phrases through a hybrid of local attractions and associated points of interest coupled with national and industry specific terms.
    • Functionality - integrate online reservation system, create structured client friendly CMS, organize site in manner suitable for use by resort staff and customers on-site (spa, golf, local attractions) as an alternative to traditional print materials.
    • Future scalability - design architecture and wireframes to support future ecommerce and real estate microsite expansion.

  • Step 7: Soft launch, testing, documentation and on-site client training. We took it one step further and created a user guide documentation for the elements of the CMS solution designed to support minor client controlled edits. In addition, we created a single photo and image asset document coupled with a full brand guideline document.

  • Step 8: All parents have to let their babies leave the home and we let the client take the keys to their new Rolls Royce of a site.