The Studio Rolls Out New Branding and Creative Strategy
Six months ago, the Marketing and Studio teams embarked on a two-pronged initiative to rejuvenate and elevate our branding and develop a new, unified creative strategy. This is an undertaking that, for most companies of our size, would take a year or longer and cost several hundred thousand dollars. In our case, it was all done internally by our Marketing and Studio teams, even while we continued to market our communities.
We began the first prong, developing the branding, back in October. Once we had made substantial headway on many of the foundational elements, we started the second prong, developing the creative strategy. In March, we began merging the two projects and finalizing them. And starting on April 29, all new creative is now being developed under the new branding and creative strategy.
The new branding includes a stronger brand architecture, with a Watermark Master Brand and four collection sub-brands: Élan, Hacienda, Aurora, and Rhapsody. Each community in our portfolio belongs to a sub-brand, but all are rooted in the Master Brand.
Our new brand architecture roots our four collection sub-brands in a Watermark Master Brand.
The Watermark Master Brand was built on a framework containing elements that we defined as being essential for us to create more consistency and clarity around our branding. Many of these elements, such as our Mission/Vision Statement and our Operating Principles, already existed and were not changed. But we developed a stronger definition of our brand personality, a new brand voice statement, a set of design principles, and other elements that, together, serve as the foundation of our rejuvenated branding.
The new Watermark Master Brand color palette is fresh and vibrant. All of the sub-brands’ color palettes are drawn from this Master Brand palette.
Our new creative strategy, Expect the Unexpected, features the surprising and unusual things about life at Watermark and our approach to senior living. With the launch of Expect the Unexpected, every campaign and execution the Studio now produces emanates from this core idea.
The strategy is singularly focused on evoking an irresistible sense of curiosity in the viewer. Using compelling messaging and real stories and images from our communities, we incite people to connect with us so they can experience it for themselves.
The following images are from a series of concept boards developed by the team to illustrate the spirit of Expect the Unexpected.
We’re excited to apply this new work in our marketing to convey the power of the human spirit, and to show our communities as places where people truly thrive.
We began the first prong, developing the branding, back in October. Once we had made substantial headway on many of the foundational elements, we started the second prong, developing the creative strategy. In March, we began merging the two projects and finalizing them. And starting on April 29, all new creative is now being developed under the new branding and creative strategy.
The new branding includes a stronger brand architecture, with a Watermark Master Brand and four collection sub-brands: Élan, Hacienda, Aurora, and Rhapsody. Each community in our portfolio belongs to a sub-brand, but all are rooted in the Master Brand.
Our new brand architecture roots our four collection sub-brands in a Watermark Master Brand.
The Watermark Master Brand was built on a framework containing elements that we defined as being essential for us to create more consistency and clarity around our branding. Many of these elements, such as our Mission/Vision Statement and our Operating Principles, already existed and were not changed. But we developed a stronger definition of our brand personality, a new brand voice statement, a set of design principles, and other elements that, together, serve as the foundation of our rejuvenated branding.
The new Watermark Master Brand color palette is fresh and vibrant. All of the sub-brands’ color palettes are drawn from this Master Brand palette.
Our new creative strategy, Expect the Unexpected, features the surprising and unusual things about life at Watermark and our approach to senior living. With the launch of Expect the Unexpected, every campaign and execution the Studio now produces emanates from this core idea.
The strategy is singularly focused on evoking an irresistible sense of curiosity in the viewer. Using compelling messaging and real stories and images from our communities, we incite people to connect with us so they can experience it for themselves.
The following images are from a series of concept boards developed by the team to illustrate the spirit of Expect the Unexpected.
We’re excited to apply this new work in our marketing to convey the power of the human spirit, and to show our communities as places where people truly thrive.
