Ocean Gardens

The idea of moving to a retirement village has long been set back by stereotypes about the industry and what it represents. It can trigger feelings of fear within potential customers with many seeing it as a last port of call before *ahem* the end. Ocean Gardens came to us, wanting to dispel these views by bringing their branding and identity into a more contemporary space. They saw themselves as a vibrant community of retirees who were all making the most out of life. And they wanted other people to see it too.

CREATIVE
Our creative challenge was to unpack often negative perceptions people have around making the decision to move. Rather than continuing to hold onto a family home that has become too big, our messaging focused on the benefits that someone would likely experience when they change their view about retirement living. To lay the foundation of our brand story and messaging while aiding the feeling that Ocean Gardens was the right place for our customers, we developed customer personas to allow people to recognise themselves within the Ocean Gardens community. We then targeted our Moving Moments creative campaign to both adult children and potential residents, taking a linear approach to thinking by identifying and reflecting on significant life events. This set us up to position the move to Ocean Gardens as the next ‘moving moment’ in people’s lives.

DESIGN
With customer impressions based heavily around how a business looks and presents itself, it was apparent that Ocean Gardens had started to age out of a very competitive market. Our job was to build a new visual identity that would not only bring them into the present but it would work to bring them to the forefront of people’s minds. We would provide a look that would stay consistent throughout their customer’s 1 to 5 year path to purchase. Due to its unique historical value our design was required to incorporate the existing brand mark. Although we couldn’t change the logo, we could change the aesthetic look they went to market with. We took a dated 90’s brand and brought it into the present by building Ocean Gardens a more modern identity. We softened their previously colourful palette to one overarching colour and gave our design room to breathe through the use of clean white space.

DIGITAL
In an extremely competitive market we were tasked to build Ocean Garden’s new website, increase business awareness and generate new leads. Our biggest challenge lay in convincing someone why to choose them above other retirement villages. With the understanding that decision makers weren’t only prospective retirees (but their children as well) we saw benefit in talking to multiple audiences at various stages of their decision making process. To keep Ocean Gardens top of mind we would saturate the market at every touchpoint through a multifaceted strategy consisting of google ads, social media ads, EDMs, automation, a detailed content strategy and SEO. By engaging people throughout their path to purchase, nurturing them along the way, Ocean Gardens remains competitive.