The Ursa Berkeley, New Housing Marketed a New Way
To successfully lease multi-family housing projects or find new commercial office tenants, it’s really critical that you create an immersive experience for the potential tenants. With COVID-19 limiting visits you can’t count on potential tenants coming to your building. How can they learn about what your building has to offer, what’s around it, how it feels to be there? They really want to check out the units and get a realistic experience and now they can — virtually.
RadiantBrands is now creating websites that deliver an immersive experience.
A recently completed project gave us the opportunity to brand and launch the new 6 story Ursa building on Bancroft a half block from the UC Berkeley campus. Radiant was tasked with creating more than a website: to shape the experience and brand for the building, from the name to the brand story. The goal was to give it unique recognition among tenants and in the community. We worked closely with the architects and the owner of the building to develop a theme and a name and integrate that into the experience of the building. We also wanted to use new technologies that enhance visualization of the rental units including 3-D full-color, furnished floor plans and walk-through virtual tours using a tool called MatterPort that allows you to navigate through rooms of an apartment as though you were there.
Naming the building and the brand with university in mind.
With a focus on the student and graduate student market, we wanted to project a strong, relatable identity for the building, so we developed a name that connected it uniquely to the University – the Ursa. This references the Cal mascot which is a bear, as well as Ursa Major, the Big Dipper, known as the bear constellation. This evolved into a logo showing the bear constellation image. The space theme is repeated throughout the building, creating a unique theme and connection to the university and astronomy. The signage and interior graphics on every floor play off this theme with large, floor-to-ceiling graphic murals of planets and galaxies we acquired from NASA.
Using video to create an experience of community.
It’s important to create a connection not just to the units you rent but to the vibe you create, a city and location your tenants will be living in. A short video can create that broader sense of community, adds value to the location, markets to a wider audience and sets you apart from other properties. We produced unique videos that give a website visitor an instant experience of what the location and the place is all about. By using a combination of stock, locally shot video, and drone footage we create that first impression, that connection to the Ursa.
In the future, real estate marketing will focus on branded, realistic experiences.
Develop a unique brand and theme for buildings, integrate it into the design; create an immersive website that guides the viewer through the building — this is the future. Use tools that draw in visitors and potential tenants to create a much more realistic sense of buildings. In the future, housing as well as commercial offices will find it essential to build these interactive ways of engaging and shaping experience, using short video, walkthrough tours and visuals that create a relatable, compelling experience…something closer to actually being there.
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