Our client, Stanley Martin Homes was recognized by their industry peers at this year’s GALA Awards and brought home the award for Best Printed Brochure for an Individual Community for their Selma Estates community.
Congratulations to Stanley Martin Homes. We are honored to have been a part of this wonderful collaboration with the fabulous team at Stanley Martin Homes!
NDG Communications is pleased to announce that Megan DiNorscio has joined our team as Assistant Marketing Manager. Megan majored in Advertising and Public Relations with a minor in Human Development and Family Studies at Pennsylvania State University. She previously worked for Torre Lazur McCann as a Traffic Coordinator and was later promoted to an Account Coordinator. Born and raised in East Hanover, New Jersey, Megan recently moved to Maryland and looks forward to seeing more of what the Old Line State has to offer. She enjoys visiting her alma mater and attending football games. She also enjoys cycling, traveling abroad, and reading.
When an employee at Brookfield Homes, a client of NDG, lost her life to domestic violence in 1996, the company banded together to not only honor the memory of Lisa Sechrist, but also to help young women build self esteem and professional skills—and support local efforts to provide a safe place to live, with the hope of preventing the recurrence of such a tragedy.
Since then, Brookfield Homes has raised nearly $500,000 in scholarships and assisted more than 100 young women with the Lisa Sechrist Memorial Foundation.
In addition to financial contributions, they accept non-perishable food, clothing, school supplies, toys, furniture, and more.
Click here to learn more about the foundation.
Last month, I attended Digital East, a conference on the future of digital media, in Tyson’s Corner, Va. The seminar was very informative about future trends and what to expect next in the digital advertising and marketing world.
Lets start with the fact that we are now creating more than advertisements; we are creating experiences. Instead of measuring digital advertising effectiveness simply by whether or not it performed in a cost-effective way, perhaps we should be looking at experiences in terms of consumer involvement. Did the advertisement aid in establishing a relationship with a consumer? If so, the ad was beneficial! Because creating relationships leads to loyalty.
The biggest takeaway at Digital East: That everything leads back to social media. It’s really important to use it as a way to disseminate information, but even more important to use social media to encourage 2-way conversations with the consumer.
Oscar de la Renta launched its new fragrance on Facebook, with support from Twitter, email, and fangating. The fragrance sold out within 12 hours.
Under Armour drove paid media to its Facebook with its “footsteps” campaign, offering tabs with exclusive content, a YouTube homepage takeover, and callouts on athlete Facebook pages.
We need to give fans truly exciting and meaningful content in order for them to want to share it and ultimately increase the fan base. Give them something to do. Challenge them to participate and upload photos. Let fans become the global voice.
Finally, the last important takeaway at Digital East: What’s even more important when it comes to social media, is that if you aren’t going to use it or keep up with it, don’t even start. If you cannot commit the resources required for success, you will lose prospects because they don’t know how to communicate with you and/or your brand or company.
Want to know more? Contact me on twitter @badrgirl.
Here at NDG Communications, we always want to be moving forward in our field. In addition to our growing library of books, we also have the NDG “Knowledge Base.”
The NDG Knowledge Base is something that we developed internally here at NDG and are very proud of. It is essentially a library of online articles and reports that can be easily accessed by the entire NDG team at any time through our operations system, and covers topics on advertising, marketing, and the real estate industry. What makes our Knowledge Base even more special is that it’s a team effort and everyone contributes to it and also relies upon it for the most up-to-date information and advice.
Here are a couple of recent articles that we added to our Knowledge Base that we felt were important to share with you:
“The Future of Mobile Advertising: Less Annoying, More Useful” reveals that 60% of mobile users click on mobile ads at least once a week. The article suggests that there’s still room for improvement with mobile ads that could make them a “less annoying, more useful” experience. Click here to read more about future trends in mobile advertising.
“You’ve Got Three Seconds to Make an Impact” covers the importance of the email subject line. It’s one of the first things a person sees before opening an email. After viewing who sent the email, the recipient looks to the subject line, and within three seconds, they’ve already decided whether or not to open the email.
Stop back periodically for more great and informative reads from our library and the NDG Knowledge Base. We’ll continue to share the most timely and informative things we find with you.
NDG Communications is pleased to introduce our newest team member, Senior Graphic Designer Ashley Stuart. Originally from Dayton, Ohio, Ashley graduated from Ohio University with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Graphic Design. She previously lived in Charleston, South Carolina, where she worked as a graphic designer and creative marketing specialist at Passport International. Ashley enjoys people watching, bike riding, reading detective/mystery novels, yoga, gardening, and travel. Welcome aboard, Ashley!
For homebuyers who want to buy new, but just don’t have the time to wait for a new home to be built, many builders, including our client Stanley Martin Homes, offer “spec
” or “immediate delivery homes,” built based on what the builder thinks potential buyers are looking for.
Want some great insights on buying a spec home? Click here for some very helpful advice from Stanley Martin Homes Neighborhood Sales Manager Ashley Johnson.
As one of the event co-chairs, I’m really excited about The Great American Living Awards (GALA) coming up at the end of October.
Each year, builders, architects, designers, and marketers from across Maryland and Virginia submit their work to be judged by industry experts. It’s a recognition like no other, because it comes from your peers, and winning a GALA Award provides great recognition for your company and your clients.
This year’s GALA awards show is set for October 27 at the Sheraton Premier at Tyson’s Corner. You’ll see the biggest, brightest, and best new home marketing and sales in the Mid-Atlantic. Order your tickets today—GALA 2011!
As we approach the 10th anniversary of the events of September 11, 2001, most news channels are thankfully focusing not on the tragedy itself, but on the strength of the people who have overcome adversity in the midst of this terrible disaster.
It’s in these trying times that people often come together to help one another and “behind-the-scene” heroes are born. “It’s a side of Americans that is often too ignored,” according to the latest blog post from new home sales expert Myers Barnes. “In our core, we are grit and gratitude,” says Myers.
Click here to read a truly inspirational post from Myers titled “Remembering September 11th: No Where To Go But Forward” on how you too can be an everyday hero in the new-home market.
In the days since Hurricane Irene, we’ve reached out to our clients to ensure they are safe and to assess any damage or issues with their communities and operations. Thankfully everyone is fine, but we want to mention the community of Arlington Place in Arapahoe, North Carolina.
Thanks to the community’s 25-foot elevations, Arlington Place fared well with no structural damage or flooding, but had more than 100 fallen trees. In this time of 
emergency, the Arlington Place community members pulled together to help one another, surveying damage, sharing supplies, and helping clear debris and fallen limbs.
Click here to read more about Arlington Place and how the residents joined together to make their neighborhood beautiful again after the hurricane.
