Case Studies

Lutheran Sunset Ministries Case Study The Challenge While the occupancy goals of Lutheran Sunset Ministries (LSM) were being met in the Independent Living and Assisted Living residences, the community’s census goes up and down. The small town of Clifton where the...

Cyber Monday 2017 Case Study The Challenge As the fall semester comes to a close, students are prepping for exams and working on final papers before their long-awaited winter break arrives. With the excitement of the holidays around the corner, historically, this time...

Renewal 2016 Case Study The Challenge Each year, Campus Advantage implements five major annual campaigns to boost leasing and brand awareness across their student real estate portfolio. Based on the successful move-in campaign implemented two months prior — a strategy...

Year of Free Case Study The Challenge A total of 44 student housing properties within Campus Advantage’s portfolio needed an extended marketing campaign that would not only drive leasing velocity for the 2018–2019 school year, but also operate as a unique means for...

The Challenge A variety of student housing properties within Campus Advantage’s portfolio needed to implement a creative, incentivizing campaign to differentiate themselves against the competition in their respective markets throughout the U.S. with the goals of...

Yacht Harbor Club   Our Work Branding Web Design Campaigns See Video Case Study Catalyst was engaged to complete a rebranding of Yacht Harbor Club, a 173-unit multifamily property located on Hayden Island in Portland, Oregon. The property was a new development...

Case Study: Skyloft The Challenge Johnson Trube & Associates, a full-service real estate development brokerage and consulting firm,partnered with Catalyst to assist in the lease-up of Skyloft, a new 18-story student housing property under development in Austin,...

Case Study: Tobin Lofts Website Redesign The Challenge Tobin Lofts, a student housing property in San Antonio, Texas, was generating a significant amount of traffic to their website but faced low engagement due to an outdated website design. Key performance indicators...

The Verge Rebrand and Reveal The Challenge In March 2016, Campus Advantage acquired The Edge, a student housing development in Orlando, FL. Campus Advantage immediately implemented a value-add strategy to reposition the asset as a luxury student housing community,...

The Highlands The Challenge Campus Advantage purchased The Highlands, a 732-bed property in Reno, Nevada in 2015. At the time of the acquisition, there were not many properties in the Reno market. The Highlands identified needed improvements as part of their growth...

The Challenge AXIS 360 was a new student housing property in Buffalo, NY, catering to students at the nearby University at Buffalo. As a new development, the property faced a lack of awareness in the market, particularly in online search. Google searches for keyword...

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Case Study: How a Property Increased Rankings 279% The Luxx is one of the top student apartment options for UT-San Antonio students, but it was nowhere near the top of applicable search engine queries. In other words, apartment hunters didn’t even know this...

The Verge Services: Branding, Logo Development, Web Design Location: Orlando, FL University Affiliation:The University of Central Florida The Challenge Catalyst was engaged to rebrand a newly acquired property in the Orlando, Florida market serving students at the...

How an Austin Property Boosted Leasing 37% in Less Than One Month Acquiring a new property, changing management teams, and getting CapEx improvements underway is enough to take any staff’s attention away from leasing, but that didn’t stop Dobie Twenty21 in Austin,...

It’s Never Too Early to Start Pushing Renewals Residents may have just moved in, but there’s no better time to convince them to stay for another year. Start marketing to your current residents early so you aren’t in trouble down the line. Plus, the best customer you...

Branding, Logo Development, Web Design

Catalyst was engaged to establish a brand and marketing materials for The Knox, a new development in Knoxville, TN. After developing a name, logo, and marketing materials, Catalyst worked with the on-site team to collect 665 initial leads through social media, ad placements, email campaigns, and other marketing tactics. The property has continually surpassed leasing goals, including being 27.49% pre-leased as of December 4 — a huge leap from their goal of 10% by the end of 2015.

Rebranding, Logo Development, Traditional Advertising, Web Design, Social Media, Email

Upon acquisition of a property in Huntsville, TX, Catalyst was engaged to rename and rebrand University House Lake Road. Drawing upon cultural history and university demographics, Catalyst renamed the property, developed marketing materials, and launched a reveal party to introduce the brand in the market. The party resulted in 14 signed leases and 11 applications — a huge success for the typically late-leasing market. Since the grand reopening, the effective rental rate has increased 3% from $504 to $519, and the pro forma effective rate increased to $514.

Campaign, Video, Email, Social Media, Traditional Advertising

Catalyst created a campaign to encourage residents at 30 properties across the U.S. to renew their leases. Using print pieces, videos, emails, and social media, the campaign resulted in the top performing property receiving more than 200 renewal requests. Emails were sent to 28,531 unique recipients with an open rate of 59% and a click-through rate of 9.9%. These results both exceeded the industry average open rate of 21.83% and click-through rate of 2.1%. The portfolio saw an increase of 296 leases (+124%) over the previous year and is well ahead of their budgeted leasing goals.

Branding, Logo, Campaign, Interior Design, Mascot Creation

While developing a world-renowned university, FEFU contracted Campus Advantage-Russia and Catalyst to shape a brand that would attract students from around the globe. Catalyst provided a cohesive brand and message for the university, created a mascot symbol, logo, and various print collateral. Pieces produced for an RA recruitment campaign resulted in more than 200 applications and 36 RAs selected, and an open-air concert celebration campaign brought out more than 25,000 students. Finally, Catalyst garnered several media mentions for the university to set an example for future higher learning institutions.

Campaign, Video, Email, Social Media, Traditional Advertising

Catalyst created a campaign for Cyber Monday to promote one day for students to sign leases and receive special discounts and giveaways. Catalyst created a video that featured all participating properties, social media graphics, landing pages, emails, posters, and flyers for the event. A total of 780 leases were signed over the course of the campaign, leading to an average cost per lease of $44.87 for the portfolio. This put the portfolio 40% ahead in renewed leases from the previous year, and 76% ahead in new leases.

Branding, Logo, Social Media, PR

Catalyst was engaged by West Virginia University to assist in marketing and leasing efforts for three on-campus apartment communities that are part of a public-private partnership. Over the course of the engagement, Catalyst identified individual audiences for each property and equipped the WVU housing marketing team with a strategic framework and examples of tried-and-true tactics that will enable the team to position their properties and tailor their messaging to each target demographic.

Campaign, Email, Social Media, Web Design

To drive new leases and renewals across the portfolio on one day, Catalyst created a Cyber Monday campaign to target properties in 20 different marketplaces. The campaign employed a retro-computer theme and resulted in 643 inquiries submitted on landing pages and overall increased website traffic. Across the portfolio, 401 residents renewed their leases, and an additional 108 new leases were signed for the 2015–16 academic year. This put the properties 233 leases ahead of where they were during the same time period the previous year.

Campaign, SEO, SEM, Social Media, Email, Reputation

Due to problems driving traffic to the property, they were not able to exceed 81.32% occupancy, and engaged Catalyst to help achieve 90% occupancy. Catalyst implemented a blended digital campaign including SEO, online advertising, social media marketing, email marketing, and reputation management. This campaign led to an increase in online traffic of 46%. By combining the property’s traditional marketing strategy with Catalyst’s blended campaign, the property was able to achieve 91.48% occupancy — exceeding their budgeted occupancy for the first time.

Messaging, Web Design

Tobin Lofts needed to establish two separate identities for two phases of their community with distinct audiences. Due to budget constraints, the property could not develop a second website but needed to separate markets to the satisfaction of owners and the financial funding institution. Catalyst amended the existing site to differentiate audiences and established two distinct identities — Tobin Lofts Midtown and Tobin Lofts at San Antonio College. The property leased to 100% occupancy, overcoming the delay in construction and the difficulties presented by the original website.

Messaging, Reputation Management, SEO, SEM, Traditional Advertising

The Avenue faced challenges achieving leasing occupancy due to prospects perceiving the modern property as being out of their budget based on marketing materials viewed both traditionally and online. This led to decreased online traffic to the website and physical traffic to the leasing office. In an effort to combat the pricing perception and capture audience attention, digital and traditional marketing collateral were employed. This, combined with a new tagline, led to an increase in traffic of 52.42%, and the property was able to reach a total occupancy of 99.7% — exceeding their budgeted occupancy by 4.5%.

Rebranding, Logo, Web Design, Traditional Advertising

2040 Lofts, a newly acquired property, was negatively associated as the “international house” among Marquette University students. Catalyst worked with the ownership team and property staff to rebrand the property and implement upgrades to reposition the property in the marketplace. Catalyst promoted a VIP party to introduce The Marq to the market, which resulted in 250 people attending, 51 signed leases, and another 87 leases pending at the end of the event. Within weeks, the property’s pre-lease rate was 13% higher than the same period for the previous year.