Digital Mktg, Design & Web Dev for Real Estate Company
- E-Commerce Development Other Design Other Digital Marketing
- $200,000 to $999,999
- Feb. 2003 - Ongoing
- Quality
- 5.0
- Schedule
- 5.0
- Cost
- 5.0
- Willing to Refer
- 5.0
"The quality of the images and assets that ODG comes up with is unbeatable."
- Real estate
- Vancouver, British Columbia
- 11-50 Employees
- Phone Interview
- Verified
ODG manages a real estate firm's digital marketing, design, and web development efforts. Their goal is to produce realistic renderings to help potential customers see the properties they're interested to buy.
ODG's work has helped the client to consistently hit their pre-selling targets. Their remarkable development and design skills enable them to meet and exceed expectations. Organized and proactive, their incredible focus on producing high-quality deliverables is key to their ongoing success.
A Clutch analyst personally interviewed this client over the phone. Below is an edited transcript.
BACKGROUND
Introduce your business and what you do there.
I’m the VP of marketing services at Steveston Real Estate and I’ve been with the company for 12 years. We’re a full-service marketing company in Richmond, British Columbia that specializes in bringing multifamily projects to market. We do mixed-use buildings, townhouse sites, and more.
OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE
What challenge were you trying to address with Opacity Design Group (ODG)?
We hire ODG to provide us with beautiful assets that can help us when the building we need to advertise isn't physically built yet. We have to overcome the big challenge of pre-construction marketing because many people aren't comfortable purchasing simply based on a disclosure statement. They need to feel something about the offering, and ODG delivers that.
SOLUTION
What was the scope of their involvement?
ODG creates beautiful renderings to bring our designer’s scheme to life, highlighting it in a way that would be appealing to our given target market. Depending on the scale of the project and the partnership group involved, they could be involved from the very beginning, including the naming and logo design process of the project. Their main work revolves around developing our project assets and website, facilitating the registration phase to attract potential purchasers. After that, they continue to maintain the platform and oversee our registration database.
Until we’re ready to go to market, the team is in charge of creating all presentations such as wall graphics, site signage, colour boards, and printed materials such as brochures, handouts, floor plans, and feature sheets. They also provide suggestions on how we could present our materials and organize all the content that we present to our customers, working with their preferred providers to produce the images we’re going to be happy with. We often incorporate drone footage of the area we’re offering, including seamed images of the actual views, which is always an impactful asset. We work with ODG through launching until sellout, and in between, they adjust our website and materials as needed.
For some of the multiphase development projects that we’ve done, the team spearheads extensive research and discovery in order to dive into the history of the area we’re going to build in. They try to create a name and logo that could be rooted in something relevant to a certain area. On top of that, they watch out for marketing trends so that we ensure we launch with relevant assets our potential customers want to see. For example, nowadays many people are gravitating towards digital brochures and ODG has helped us transition away from print offerings in some instances.
We have a multi-phase project with them offering affordable new housing, everything from one-bedroom to three-bedroom homes, over 16 different floor plans, and 85 units in the East Building. ODG had to configure the sales center with all of the assets, floor plates, brochures, touchscreen interactive displays, and more for the East launch. After 10 months, we hit our presale target and were able to start launching the West building with 140 units. Because Will is so highly organized, it took ODG three days to reconfigure the sales center and switch everything from East to West assets. They also revamped our website to reflect all those changes and we were able to switch between offerings within a week.
What is the team composition?
Will (Principal & Creative Director) and Chris (Founder & President) are our two main contacts. Will is the gatekeeper for all of the content, creative materials, and branding deliverables that we need. We also work with Kelly (Lead Developer) who does a lot of the individual website programming work, and we collaborate closely when there are troubleshooting issues that need to be done.
How did you come to work with Opacity Design Group (ODG)?
The founder of Steveston Real Estate collaborated with Will when he started ODG with Chris. He hired ODG to build out his first brick and mortar, transforming an old produce store into a beautiful and modern office space, housing both the real estate marketing company, their project display area, a full kitchen and a developer's office in the heart of a retail district.
Having used ODG for his own personal design work, he built a trusted relationship with them and began recommending the company to all of the developers that we were working with. In the end, we continue to chose to work with them because the quality of their work continues to be outstanding.
How much have you invested with them?
We’ve spent around $500,000 — just within the 12 years where I have been present in the engagement. Typically, the minimum investment we see for the smaller projects is $30,000 and for bigger projects, upwards of $120,000.
What is the status of this engagement?
Our ongoing collaboration started in February 2000.
RESULTS & FEEDBACK
What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?
The quality of the images and assets that ODG comes up with is unbeatable. They have a quick turnaround, stay organized, and they’re always ready to go when we need to jump into action. We’re impressed with them because not all projects that are launched hit the ground with such success as we continue to have — it’s really their understanding of the market environment and trends that has helped them be successful in this way.
As an example, we hired ODG for one of our boutique projects of only 13 units with a starting price point of around $2 million. We started a registration campaign based only off-site signage and a very limited website with beautiful imagery. After 6 months, we advertised our launch of sales and we were able to secure 30 appointments solely based on the renderings they created and the website they launched. We were able to sell seven units in three days — hitting our pre-selling target for the development in an unbelievably short time. No small feat for such a higher-end development. ODG is able to create a real connection to the real estate offering based on the quality and content for the assets they produce, no matter the scale of the project.
How did Opacity Design Group (ODG) perform from a project management standpoint?
Not a deadline goes by unnoticed with ODG because they’re very meticulous. They prioritize our consecutive timelines, making sure nothing interferes and we can achieve the timing we expect for our various activities - website launch, sales centre launch, etc. We’ve worked with other companies before where we could pay less for design services, but there’s always some form of oversight that reminds us why ODG is simply the best at what they do.
Once you work with Will, you’ll understand how valuable his management skills are. He is able to organize and maintain an incredible workload. He’s remarkably organized; he communicates all our milestones as reminders via email, proactively reaching out to us via phone if we lag in our replies. He will start off a project collaboration in person so that he has a better insight into our expectations and desires for the product.
What did you find most impressive about them?
They never put something in front of us that they’re not proud of, and they’re willing to do however many revisions are required to perfect their work. They work with excellent service providers and provide the best quality imagery, signage, and design. Their understanding of real estate is excellent and they are able to bring our offerings to life.
Are there any areas they could improve?
The only negative feedback I've ever received from developers we've referred to ODG is that their budgets could be more trim, but I fully understand that their services are worth it and that you'll get what you pay for. Overall, I really couldn’t say anything that they could do better because they’re truly amazing.
Do you have any advice for potential customers?
I’d leverage Will’s opinions as much as possible. He has worked with a large range of clients across many different platforms so he has a well-formed idea of what you want and what you could need. I always feel that Will has something to add and it’s worth considering his angle.
RATINGS
-
Quality
5.0Service & Deliverables
-
Schedule
5.0On time / deadlines
"They’re incredible."
-
Cost
5.0Value / within estimates
"You get what you pay for."
-
Willing to Refer
5.0NPS
"I’d recommend them.