BAM at the 2017 BILD Awards

12 May 2017 Leave a comment

by John Amardeil in Awards Tags: , , , ,

Once again, our team had a great time at this year’s annual BILD Awards in late April. The awards – now in their 37th year running! – celebrate excellence in the GTA’s new homes industry, from sales and marketing to design and construction. Our team always enjoys taking an evening to celebrate our accomplishments and to see some of the cool innovations going on in the industry. It’s also a great night to connect with our fellow marketers, builders and developers. It’s always rewarding to be recognized and to take home an award or two, too!

This year, we were honoured and excited to be nominated for several awards:
• Best New Community (Built) – Nuvo, Highmark Homes
• Best Digital Marketing Campaign (Low-Rise) – Triumph, Highmark Homes
• Best Semi/Townhome Design (Large) – The Touch, Triumph, Highmark Homes
• People’s Choice Award – Triumph, Highmark Homes
• Best Rendering (Low-Rise) – Charing Cross, Lancaster Homes

Part of the digital marketing campaign for Highmark Homes’ Triumph in Whitby community.

(You can see all of the 2017 finalists here and all the winners listed here.)

We were proud to join our client Highmark Homes on stage to accept the award for Best Semi/Townhome Design for one of their stylish, modern townhomes at Triumph in Whitby. This has been an extremely successful community – its latest phase is fully sold out – that we worked on developing and marketing with Highmark Homes and architect Hunt Design Associates over the past few years. It brought an innovative new product to the typically traditional and family-oriented Whitby market.

Helping our clients succeed is what we do best at BAM. When they win, we win. We’re proud and grateful for another year of amazing clients and communities. Until next year!

Personalization: The Key To Increasing Email Engagement

24 Jul 2015 Leave a comment

by John Amardeil in Trends Tags: ,

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Over the past decade, we’ve seen an enormous growth in the overall usage of e-communication for, well, pretty much every industry possible. In fact, popular eblast management tool Mailchimp reports that they have over 8 million clients who collectively send billions of eblasts monthly – and they are just one of the many services out there. The question is – are your eblasts working for you? Here’s a great starting point: Mailchimp reports a benchmark for real estate of 22.11% as an open rate, and 2.22% as a click through rate. If you’re not achieving results as good as this, you’re likely off the mark and will want to rethink your strategy; however, if these numbers seem to be in your ballpark, you may be wondering how you can take your campaign to the next level. The answer may simply be to get more personal with your audience.

Personalization is more than just using a tag to add a name to an email, it’s about building a relationship with your audience, and delivering customized content that generates engagement, clicks and – best of all – more qualified leads. There are a few ways you can do this. One is to understand the current status of your recipient. Are they a new recipient? Are they a long time registrant? Using a great database management system will help you to properly organize your registrants and build customized content around that. Another option is to track their experience on your website, and then use that data to help build personalized profiles. Having registrants fill out a survey during their initial sign-up can also allow you to further segment your emails. Ideally, based on the information you collect, you’ll send emails that contain content and messaging that speaks to their interests, which is more likely to keep them engaged than a standard email that you send to your whole list.

While it can be a bit more work to develop the variations of your campaign’s messaging and content for different groups, it definitely pays off. A recent personalized campaign we ran, which had only 4 different personalized groups, had an open rate of over 70%. The proof is in the pudding, personalization reigns supreme.

BAM Goes to the NAHB International Builders’ Show

12 Feb 2014 Leave a comment

by John Amardeil in Thoughts, Trends Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

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This past weekend, I embarked on a trip to Las Vegas for the NAHB International Builders’ Show in search of inspiration. What I found was a plethora of new and fresh ideas, and I could not be more ready to tackle the year ahead.

The first part of the event is taking in the new offerings from manufacturers. I got to browse all the latest trends in building and design, and this year there was a big emphasis on new luxuries for kitchens and bathrooms. It seems as though the market is catering to a more luxurious and almost escapist approach. Bathrooms are looking more like spas and kitchens are looking more like restaurants, and it’s creating better experiences for homeowners. We’re in the age of multiple showerheads and jets! One product that stood out for me was a showerhead from Kohler; it had a speaker built in so you can play audio from your handheld device via Bluetooth.

Another thing I noticed is that many Chinese companies are beginning to enter the market. What the Chinese bring are innovative designs at lower prices, ultimately lowering prices of products that are expensive in the current market. This will create more value and selection for homeowners.

Another great thing about the Builder Show is the chance to get a first hand look at the products and trends coming to the GTA. Understanding what is available for GTA homebuilders always helps with pitching projects and encouraging our clients to offer more to consumers.

And lastly, what would a building show be without the seminars. This year we made a special effort to attend as many digital marketing seminars as possible; staying ahead of the curve is very important in today’s always changing and expanding digital market.

As expected, my trip to the International Builders’ Show left me more passionate about this industry than ever, and revved up with new ideas for 2014.

Visit the BAM Facebook page to see a photo gallery from the event.

Our Clients Empire Communities and Brookfield Residential are Nominated for EnerQuality Energy Star Awards

03 Feb 2014 Leave a comment

by John Amardeil in Awards Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

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I will never grow tired of hearing about our clients being nominated for awards. Not only does it mean we’ve gone after the right clients, it means we’ve done our job marketing them.

Last week, two of our biggest clients, Empire Communities and Brookfield Residential, were each nominated for EnerQuality’s ENERGY STAR for New Homes Builder of the Year award. Empire is also nominated for the Building Innovation award and the Ontario Green Builder of the Year award. I want to take this opportunity to say congratulations.

More and more, our industry is becoming greener and more environmentally conscious about building homes. Not only is this great for the environment, but homeowners benefit by living in energy efficient homes that produce higher energy savings, better air quality and fewer emissions. This message is easy for BAM to stand behind.

We’re thrilled to be a part of our clients’ success in marketing green and building a reputation for designing sustainable homes for their homeowners. While we share their vision and message, it really is the builders standing behind their commitment to advancing homebuilding and for that, they’re being recognized. Congratulations again. BAM is proud to be part of your continuing success.

Fear and Loathing in a St. Martin Sales Office

20 Jan 2014 Leave a comment

by John Amardeil in Thoughts Tags: , , , , , , ,

The Indigo Green sales centre in St. Martin.

The Indigo Green sales office in St. Martin.

My recent vacation to St. Martin wasn’t all pleasure. I took some time to visit a local sales office as a reconnaissance mission. Upon entering the sales office, I was first surprised by the size and, let’s say, lack of quality. As a real estate marketer, I will say that I wasn’t impressed. Inside the sales office, one lone desk sat stagnant in the tiny room. The walls were practically bare and the lighting was dim. The place lacked emotion without any visual stimulation.

There is a point to all this! I was appalled by how horrible the sales experience was for $600,000 homes and visiting this sales office made me think of how well we present and package pre-construction housing here in Toronto.

The market here at home is vastly different; new developments and communities sell fast and before the shovel breaks the soil. As a marketer, this style of buying forces you to deliver your best marketing time and time again. I’m proud to say I’ve contributed to making Toronto the number one pre-construction market in the world. As a result of the technology and strategy we’ve implemented in our campaigns, we sell more homes before they’re built than anywhere else. That stat alone speaks to the caliber of marketing in the Toronto scene.

The way in which Toronto has grown to such a successful pre-construction market is because we offer something extra. We offer touchscreens, scale models, social media and much more, and these interactive marketing materials and showrooms create an experience for homebuyers. We attempt to sell the lifestyle and benefit of new home communities and to educate and excite them. This was solely lacking in my experience in St. Martin. We’ve evolved this way because people like me are always hungry and always searching, traveling and researching our competitors and other markets with the goal to always get better and outdo one another.

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