Bhartiya City is a 125 acre integrated development which when completed will have a mix of residences in various formats, commercial spaces including a 3.7 million sq ft IT SEZ and a Financial District, retail (mall + high street formats), five hotels, a hospital and schools, woven in to a master plan with an emphasis on the public realm. Positioned as the ‘City of Joy’, it is envisaged as an integrated township, the largest of its kind within city limits anywhere in India.
The Marketing Approach: The objective was to launch and market Nikoo Homes, branded residences that were the first product line to be launched. In parallel or subsequently other products such as an IT SEZ, a hotel, a hospital would be launched.
Given the enormity of the messaging scope focusing the key value proposition and the phasing of the supporting elements was important – Bhartiya City had to be positioned as a city with a vast array of features, facilities and advantages without confusing the audience by overwhelming them.
The Challenge & Opportunity: Real Estate is a highly cluttered category and a typical newspaper edition had a number of players offering similar products. There was limited differentiation between brands and products and Real Estate advertising typically also followed a standard format. Focus group research showed that credibility for real-estate ads was minimal with readers discounting most of the communication and relying on the evidence of their eyes at site visits, past track record of the builder and word of mouth.
An Integrated Approach to Breaking through the Clutter: There was close linkage between the product design and positioning, the marketing collateral and communication strategy. The product was designed to be so good and address customer needs so accurately that it could “sell itself”. The role of the campaign was to make Nikoo Homes and Bhartiya City top of mind and generate site visits. At the site a unique 40,000+ sq feet Discovery Centre displayed life-size flats and multimedia tools to walk potential residents through the making of the city.
Creative Route: The creative challenge was to capture the feeling of living in a City the likes of which has never been seen before. ‘City of Joy’ captured the thought of simple pleasures brought to life through complex design and planning- the crux of Bhartiya City’s vision. The thought was brought to fruition by W+K with a stunning, true-to-scale image created by illustrator Rod Hunt for the launch campaign as well as across integrated media such as press, OOH, sales collaterals, films, the website and installations at the Discovery Centre.
An integrated media campaign orchestrated by Lintas Initiative ensured that the campaign was visible across print, outdoor, buses, radio – each with its own distinctive story, yet aligned with the master communication plan. Activation was a key and unique element to position the City – within 3 months the grounds had played host to Slayer, Santana and Guns ‘n Roses. The promotion and subsequent concert attendance ensured that Bhartiya City was on the map.
During the launch and subsequent days over 1000 people visited the site each day and conversion rates from those visits have far exceeded the industry average.
Jessie Paul of Paul Writer who advised Bhartiya on the marketing effort said “A key factor has been focusing on building the product and brand with the belief that sales will follow. Some of the elements – like concerts – are unique to our marketing mix and have enabled a rapid ramp-up of awareness.”
According to Subhas Warrier, EVP, Initiative, Bangalore, “the consumer insights analysed on a typical property purchase scenario in Bangalore helped us establish the role for a multi-media strategy that included a gamut of channels, Newspapers, Radio, Outdoor in combination with Digital playing a very important role. Outdoor played a crucial role in addressing the IT catchment area in different parts of the city.”
The net result of the campaign was a record sale in comparison to the industry and creation of ‘Bhartiya City’ and ‘Nikoo Homes’ brands, which are already well entrenched in the real estate development market in Bangalore.
