Special Feature: Oct '25 Marketing Campaigns

Great marketing builds brand awareness, drives sales, and fuels revenue growth. In April 2025, DesignLens launched our first special feature on marketing campaigns. In October 2025, not only did we follow up with this marketing special feature, NHTI also launched a survey insights report on “Marketing that Resonates.” The report dives into messaging, partnering with brands, consumer opinion on new construction, and the design for greater transparency (a sentiment that was also heard at our annual New Home Trends Summit this year). While the report includes some examples, this special feature will highlight multiple forms of outreach from postcards to events to full brand campaigns.

Eagle Construction of Virginia – Postcard Series for The Preserve Launch

Eagle Construction of VA embraced nostalgia with a series of postcards that they sent to potential buyers for the launch of their community, The Preserve. “Welcome to The Preserve, a picture postcard of natural perfection in Blacksburg, VA.” From the start, the goal was to capture the beauty of the land and the community's deep connection with nature.

Special Feature: Oct '25 Marketing Campaigns

Before opening, the team launched a campaign built around a series of "handwritten" postcards, each one inviting a sense of nostalgia and return to simpler times. One postcard in particular (featured here) spoke to the idea of rediscovering your inner child through The Preserve's natural amenities, where you can get outside, be active, and simply be yourself. Since opening, 135 homes have already been sold, a true testament to the community's lasting appeal.

Special Feature: Oct '25 Marketing Campaigns

Strada Made’s Saltleaf Shore Stories Direct Mail Campaign (client: London Bay Development)

For Saltleaf, a new coastal village north of Naples, Strada Made created Shore Stories – a lifestyle folio blending editorial content, photography, and custom illustration to showcase the vision for the community and The Ritz-Carlton Residences , Estero Bay. Designed to feel more like an insider magazine than a sales piece, it built buyer confidence and highlighted Saltleaf’s unique positioning as more than a collection of towers. The impact was immediate: 29 sales leads, one penthouse sold, and $60 million in residences within 10 days. With future editions planned, the folio serves as both a keepsake and a storytelling platform to inspire confidence and excitement for life at Saltleaf.

Special Feature: Oct '25 Marketing Campaigns

McWhinney’s Centerra’s Community Outreach

McWhinney wanted to engage the Loveland community in a way that would help create widespread support for smart growth in their community, Centerra, and awareness for the good things that the Centerra community has brought to the larger Loveland community since its inception nearly 25 years ago. With a bright, joyful brand palette, the team kept the messaging light and optimistic, avoiding any sense of defensiveness. The campaign, which began in March 2024, included a TV spot, emails, advertorials, print ads, social media, programmatic digital ads and website landing page. The result is a list of interested residents that signed up on the interest list to stay in the know that grew by the hundreds in this timeframe.

Special Feature: Oct '25 Marketing Campaigns

Group Two’s Fox Run Phase 5 Grand Opening Campaign (client: Holland Homes)

This was an overarching campaign to create a big splash around the builder’s grand opening of a new model at Fox Run Village with the goal of driving traffic and awareness. The campaign launched this fall and was inspired by a Fall Festival theme. The team wanted it to feel like an invitation, paired with an onsite community pumpkin patch.

Special Feature: Oct '25 Marketing Campaigns

The event included food, fun, and fall festivities. The campaign was a big hit with the builder. It was running through the month of October.

Special Feature: Oct '25 Marketing Campaigns

Strada Made’s Wendell Falls Postal Placemaking (Client: Newland, now Brookfield Properties)

Marketing isn’t always about sales, sometimes it’s about placemaking and building a brand. At Wendell Falls, even the everyday deserves delight. Faced with a row of 11 clustered mailboxes that visually stood out for the wrong reasons, the team saw an opportunity to turn the ordinary into a moment of placemaking through designed artistic wraps for the backs of the mailboxes – transforming a utilitarian necessity into a neighborhood feature that sparks joy for residents and adds character to the community. It’s a simple yet powerful reminder that thoughtful design can elevate even the smallest touchpoints of daily life.

Special Feature: Oct '25 Marketing Campaigns

Gauger + Associates’ Lagoon Valley Branding

Lagoon Valley is the Bay Area’s first Conservation Community, where 85% of the land has been designated for recreation and protected open space. It is designed to meet "triple bottom line" standards (profit, people, and planet). Gauger + Associates branding connects nature and community with ads that include phrases like “Mallards call Lagoon Valley home.”

Special Feature: Oct '25 Marketing Campaigns

The team created the branding, website, advertising, signage, and environmental graphics (including designing a solar powered visitors center), as well as experiential marketing events. All of these come together to share the vision of the community and well as give a glimpse into what life could be like if you lived there.

Special Feature: Oct '25 Marketing Campaigns

Gunn | Jerkens’ Magnolia Branding (client: Brookfield Residential)

In a dense infill location in Arcadia, CA, with limited curb appeal and a softening market, Magnolia by Brookfield Residential needed more than a standard campaign—it needed a spark. The goal was to drive attention, traffic, and sales for a modern townhome neighborhood that felt attainable yet elevated. The audience was broad—young professionals, couples, empty nesters and multigenerational households. To connect, Gunn | Jerkens led with authenticity. A local became the face of the campaign, guiding prospects through neighborhood hotspots and model homes in a video series full of humor and heart. It felt casual and real, more like a friend’s advice than a sales pitch.

Special Feature: Oct '25 Marketing Campaigns

The videos became the heartbeat of the campaign, sparking buzz online, performing as high-impact creative in ads and extending into on-site activations like night markets and pop-ups. Layered around them, bold visuals, playful headlines and geo-targeted media carried the story across every channel. Together, these touchpoints painted a lifestyle narrative that felt warm, modern and relatable, reframing an overlooked pocket as a true destination. Challenges remained—aging surroundings, fire-related hesitations and international buyer concerns—but perception shifted. With seven unique floor plans showcasing up to four bedrooms, the vision became real. The campaign delivered over 2,000 leads and 76 sales in nine months.

Special Feature: Oct '25 Marketing Campaigns

Strada Made’s Mayfair, Small Town Modern (client – Southstar Communities)

Strada worked with the developer to create the branding and rollout for the upcoming Mayfair community.

The Result: Founded by Southstar Communities – people with a deep passion for this place – Mayfair is crafted with the same hardworking, creative spirit that makes New Braunfels unmistakably New Braunfels. It’s Small Town Modern, made with love.

Special Feature: Oct '25 Marketing Campaigns

To launch Mayfair, the team introduced an integrated early-phase out-of-home campaign to build awareness, spark curiosity, and establish a sense of place before the first homes opened. Their strategy included a “new vintage” marquee sign along I-35. Strada Made collaborated with RSM Design to design the sign.

Special Feature: Oct '25 Marketing Campaigns

The campaign also included six bold billboard placements that teased the community’s vision.

Special Feature: Oct '25 Marketing Campaigns

Group Two’s “The Summer I” Campaign (client Flintrock Builders)

This was an overall brand campaign that was seasonal and relevant to the builders’ targeted buyer groups of military and move-up buyers, with the goal of driving traffic to their website. This campaign launched this summer and was coupled with onsite community events. It was inspired by ‘The Summer I Turned Pretty’ TV series - It gave a nod to the show, while also telling the story behind each person and what they did in the summer. The campaign was a big hit with the builder, who saw an overall increase in website traffic, total leads, and onsite appointments over the months the campaign ran.

Special Feature: Oct '25 Marketing Campaigns

The Goal:

To create a culturally-relevant, lifestyle-driven campaign that captures the emotion and aspirational movement behind buying a Flintrock home. To deepen emotional connection with prospects, spark engagement both online and onsite (particularly through events), and drive traffic to Flintrock’s website by reinforcing that life is better in a Flintrock home.

Special Feature: Oct '25 Marketing Campaigns

The Strategy: The campaign centers on real buyers and the joy of living in a Flintrock home, capturing that feeling through the lens of an endless summer. The Flintrock flag and signature blue bring a fresh, organic vibe, while each photo series “signed” by the buyer to add a personal touch (see previous image). The narrative headline “The Summer [I/we/our/etc.…]…” connects each story to the buyer’s journey.

Special Feature: Oct '25 Marketing Campaigns

Special Feature: Oct '25 Marketing Campaigns

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