Your senior living community is a brand.

It could be argued that marketing is often too lofty a pursuit when a product, brand, or service demands sales. The “more boots on the streets” hue and cry seems like a good idea, but in retrospect, that is often short-sighted. Sales people actually love and benefit from solid, breakout marketing that drives inquiry and continues to establish brand awareness. Branding is the promise that opens the doors to sales. The market is open to marketing, if it’s different, clear, human, and relevant. Oh right, it also has to connect with their emotions and supports the rationale decision to at least “take a look.”

Know what your senior living community stands for.

Although every senior community might “look alike” how you speak, connect, and engage with this high net worth individual is key to your brand presence. Be clear and honest on your differentiators, know your audience, feel good about solving the problems at hand so you can address and improve the brand promise; often, just drilling down on the “who are we, what do we do, why we do it and who we do it for” can distill your brand to a one page brief. And that’s a good thing.

Today’s seniors. Wow.

High net worth, smart, cultured, independent, well-traveled and bringing deep life experiences. These seniors have discerning tastes and have been exposed to the subtleties of amenities. Then this population with a combination of wealth and expectations is putting many retirement communities on point to evolve facilities, refine services and be more targeted with marketing.

Similar to hotel branding and positioning.

Smart senior communities are taking their design direction from the best of hospitality design. We are seeing trends of significantly upgrading the dining room, building new cafes for flexible dining plans, remodeling public spaces for multi-generational engagement and building new clubhouses that are amenity filled. If all this sounds like a high-end hotel that is just fine just so long as the staff and resident community make it a home too.

The branding and sales cycle. It’s a conversation.

The decision to move to a continuing care retirement community is a big one. Historically, it takes, on average, 17 separate touch points over about 18 months to finally close a new prospect. This means a strong calendar of community-based events. Continuing contact and brand presence. The market is shifting, and your brand must adapt accordingly (The new seniors are seeing stronger and smarter messaging, better marketing; you need to be on their short list.)

Resin knows seniors. Our numbers prove it.

Ask us for our metrics and results by community and we’ll be glad to talk how we move the meter to 98% occupancy or how we increased event attendance, deposits, and wait list numbers. Our digital and analog brand work spans web, email, video, direct mail, print, and regional broadcast. New branding and messaging case studies are yours for the asking.

Resin is sticky.

Our experience covers most of the nation now with senior living communities in Northern California, Kansas, Virginia, Wisconsin, and North Carolina. We like to solve problems, address challenges, showcase ways that might have you thinking differently about the synergistic and cohesive brand campaign that smartly uses budgets, efforts, and continues to elevate your marketing — and that will definitely lead to sales. 

Resin is the Bay Area advertising and branding experts in that’s repositioned, rebranded and relaunched senior living communities in California, Ohio, Wisconsin,Kansas, North Carolina, and Virginia. Resin has increased occupancy, awareness, and brand expectations on what a senior living community can be. Smarter digital and analog strategies, creative, and brand management help our clients always elevate with thinking that’s simple, fresh, and relevant.

Resin. When you want to talk to seniors, talk to us.

 

 

Quirky Kids. Personal Banking. Customer Connections.

Resin has had the good fortune to work with Bank of Marin and now we’re happy to report, our relationship continues with the “Swimmer” TV spot, and a new campaign heralding the bank’s 25 year anniversary.

New work is breaking on the “quirky kids” campaign that shows a lighter, delightful side of the Bank of Marin profile. Resin partner and design director, Tim Paschke uncovered a true find in an endless Getty image search that served up a new discovery for our client: a total image bank of funny, fun, charming and irascible kids who, when partnered with the headline and copy, expressed the human touch for the bank. Sometimes it’s like that: kismet.

Bank of Marin + Resin = Awesome.

We’ve been part of the stratospheric Bank of Marin growth. When we first started working with the team, they had seven branches, now they have seventeen. From Napa down to the East Bay and over into the City this “community” bank has smartly channeled its growth with conservative, fiscally responsible decisions and acquisitions. Naturally, they have always asked us to be part of the discussion and show the kind of advertising and branding that delivers on the bank’s vision: community, business, friendly, approachable, human, and light.

 Smarter Bank Branding.

Bank of Marin has always believed in looking at their customers as the important pillar in their community outreach; yes, bank employees and management sit on over seventy non profit boards and volunteer time, expertise and financial assistance, because the bank knows that the financial enterprise and institution must be part of the locale, the community, and the businesses. Bank of Marin knows its about the people and how they relate on a community and business level without getting lost in a sea of “me too’ financial advertising.

Resin is the bay area advertising and branding agency with deep financial and lifestyle experience, and most notably has marketed and branded premier senior living communities in Northern California, Ohio, Virginia, Wisconsin, North Carolina, and Kansas.

There’s a shift, a change.

Be a part the branding challenge that’s shifting the conversation from what we accept, and toss it overboard. Transform it. Be a force that’s redirecting how advertising is talking to the  senior audience. You know the numbers, you’ve read the press. You’ve seen the surge of a population that’s aging. No denying it. The senior market is here. Big time. And if you’re in the business of advertising, marketing, branding, talking, showing, telling, or selling, you may want to start thinking in new ways. New attitudes. Throw that gear into overdrive and start shaping the conversation in ways that are smarter, more entertaining, more informative. Look, changes in advertising and how you talk to your audience has happened and is happening with all brands in packaged goods, lifestyle, technology, finance, automotive, and categories of business that are discovering that the old way and methods (pun intended) are beginning to understand one simple premise: Don’t continue with the status quo. Don’t settle for the way it was, capture and expect to think about the way it can be, or maybe, should be. If you can pull five examples of interesting, new, breakout advertising in the senior market, grab those tear sheets and watch that brand over the next year or so. See if their work continues to hold up, excite, or connect on a the level that captured your interest.

Redford at 90mph.

Who doesn’t love and appreciate the strategy that smartly defines or even re-defines what the brand is doing to change a perception, offer a focus, channel new thinking in any mix of short term and long term thinking. The strategy is what we want to say, and the creative is how we’re going to say it. Spoiler alert: Do not introduce the “kitchen sink” strategy for fear of not saying everything to everyone at once (see reference “drinking water from firehose”). Think about the strategic rollout of a 12-month plan of action that knows who you want to talk to, why, and when. Be able to adjust the strategy should the market demand a more nimble chain of thought. And never produce creative as a checklist that covers the strategy; interpretation by the creative is where the magic happens.That senior you saw last year renting a SUP board? Think about her. Ever hear about Robert Redford driving his Porsche up to Oregon at 90mph? Yeah, he’s only 78.

Be bold.

It’s ok to be the voice of a brand that’s fluent in “engaging” – speak with a tone a voice, and a manner that can be clever, different, informative but personal. Think about the conversation and don’t try to fill the conversation with everything. Leave a little something to the response, inquiry and call to action. Bold content intrigues and leaves a little something to be discovered. Experiencing your brand means enjoying and delighting in how your brand connects with the person; be clear, be fresh, and never underestimate the beautify of simplicity where your message is a showcase of stopping power in an increasingly noisy world. Bold means being out there, for a reason and with a purpose. Bold means taking a stand and brininging your audience along for the ride. (Name five brands in any area of your personal and professional interest that you remember or at the very least looked forward to hearing from them.)

.The audience is hungry for different.

Without going into the litany of neurological studies mapping he human brain, suffice to say, the brain likes to be active, challenged, and has a long standing reputation for noticing and being attracted to “different” —- you have a lot to work with here; imagery, words, motion, color, texture, sensations and design characteristics that when thoughtfully mapped into the business of brand and advertising can reshape the offer, message and overall connection between you and your customer.

Seniors do not like to be treated like seniors

Bright, articulate, cultured, and seeking the next new thing, they want to keep their attitudes fresh, their outlook bright, and the opportunities that connect with them. Well read, educated, professional, and world experienced this is a market segment that should be absolutely ripe for the best and advertising you can find, approve, and run. So do it. Get that strategy mapped, demand creative that turns heads and know that if you can challenged the market, do it. And be the new brand champion that could very well be the next brand that stepped outside the box and into the brave, new world of leading a market. The rewards are endless.

Who the hell is Resin?

Resin is the Bay Area advertising and branding experts in marketing to seniors. We’ve repositioned, rebranded and relaunched senior living communities in California, Ohio, Wisconsin, Wichita, and Virginia. Resin has increased occupancy, awareness, and brand expectations on what a senior living community can be. Smarter digital and analog strategies, creative, and brand management help our clients always elevate with thinking that’s simple, fresh, and relevant.

When you want to talk to seniors, talk to us.

 

 

 

 

What do you want out of a photographer?

Client and agency, one would guess, want the same thing: value, expertise, own-able look, efficient team, fantastic shots, and the intangibles like insanely awesome post work, and finally, the take away that “Let’s shoot with that person again.” So here’s how we go about developing new work for clients and the evaluation of a photographer and the portfolio.

This is how we do it.

First the folio and maybe a reference, a referral, somebody said these folks are good. Let’s take a look at what we’re shooting: people, lifestyle, landscape, architecture, food, travel, product, technology, personal projects (show us something that gets everyone excited with your post work, color, lighting, and the texture.

Then what?

What’s the lighting set up? Let’s look at the backdrop, cropping, post work, color work, black and white. The photographers book, the videographers reel, is all about subject and feel.

Finding the right shooter. 

We want the extra can of nitro strapped onto the camera. We want the talent to bring something that challenges the stereotypical look and feel. The extra boost that takes the shoot into another level. Hit us up for a double espresso and a glazed donut and we’re good to go.

Hit the ground running.

Finding the photographer or videographer who can hit the ground running and understand what the agency wants, and then amps it up to 11, (Spinal Tap reference, thank you for reading this far)  is part of the package. Ideas and shot list, shot blocking, the pre pro and planning takes time, and often there just doesn’t seem to be enough of that.

Did someone mention budget?

Anyone can take a snapshot, but a picture, well, that actually just may be worth a thousand words. And let’s not under-estimate the importance of talent that charges fair market value for their skill set. (In our age of digital-ism, everybody’s a photographer, just point your iPhone and click, see that was easy; “Honestly I don’t know why these guys charge so much.”)

Ok, then let’s work against the dollars and find the value.

Fast, cheap, or good, pick any two. We know what the market costs. We know what rates include. And yes, we have to walk the line between budget and brand. Look and feel. Value and Vibe (I ran out of ‘v”words, if you have one send it to me).

We don’t hire, we team.

This isn’t showing up with a camera. We want a partner, a team mate who brings something particularly unique to the look and feel, sure, but there’s more; like managing a photoshoot with schedules, crew, equipment, and communication.

The well-managed shoot.

It’s a thing of beauty, the other part of that, not so much. Like anything in life, you get what you pay for; ok, sometimes you run into a really good deal, but we file that under ‘luck’ and we move on.

 

 

The lens focused on WCBR. Southern hospitality.

Five day shoot with stills and video, simultaneously shooting both; orchestrated with the unerring patience and assistance of our client, WCBR, and the courteous and talented Jackson Smith, photography, http://www.jacksonsmith.com and video with Josh Gooden,http://www.joshgooden.com/blog/.

Jackson knew our client, Jackson knew Josh, both had never worked together but once we had a full day of pre pro blocking shots and slating our efforts, we knew we had terrific talent at work. Jackson loves to capture emotion. He dialed into the residents and the sense of place, connection, and the relationships. He shot all of the images with a Canon and a slightly wide 80mm portrait lens. Lighting? A combination of strobes, natural light – scrims and reflectors with an eye towards not making the lighting too beautiful – but more natural. Jackson also introduced us to his parlance of getting the “guudgeyness” in a photo, which we believe means gooey with a goodness and a creamy filing. He may spell it differently, but he gets it and it happens.

We shot residents, community, ambient, staff, we filmed, staged, and managed, for the most part, to hit our marks, meet our timeline, and make sure this truly remarkable community showed off its best side; and with their new signature pool, fitness center, and gorgeously designed apartments, it made us all look good. Jackson Smith was supremely patient with our residents and always pushed for more out of a shot. His crew moved smoothly from one set to the next, and we “found” the shot (not easy to do when faced with new lighting or furniture or ambient issues). See aforementioned “value.”

 

Josh pulled out the drone.

Josh Gooden is a drone shooter, and MOVI shooter, and and wide dolly shot, who pushed it all to getting the complete library of shots while Jackson shot stills, Josh shot video. Then Josh shot ambient, then he shot virtual tour stuff, then he shot drone stuff and then we looked a the footy and saw that Josh crushed it. Evening 7:00pm-8:30pm summer light in Virginia when the air is still, humid, and carries a Southern soft that settles into the lowering sky, you can feel the warming breeze that blows across the Blue Ridge Mountains. That’s how it was. We’ll get three :30 tv spots out of this footage and the client will get a look that underscores their brand promise of “extraordinary living” and we got to know the goodness of Gooden. Ask him about the first wedding he ever shot and it involves bikers, motorcycles, and cigars and, well you can ask about the rest. He might even tell you about it.

So what do we look for in a photographer? More like what does a photographer look for in an assignment. In this case, the agency found a team that looked through the lens and saw the beauty of film. It’s what they love. And why we’d hire them again. For brands who want to look fabulous.

Resin is the Bay Area advertising and branding experts in marketing to seniors. We’ve repositioned, rebranded and relaunched senior living communities in California, Ohio, Wisconsin, Wichita, and Virginia. Resin has increased occupancy, awareness, and brand expectations on what a senior living community can be. Smarter digital and analog strategies, creative, and brand management help our clients always elevate with thinking that’s simple, fresh, and relevant.

When you want to talk to seniors, talk to us.