First some background information: Newhall Land wanted to reenergize Valencia, a master-planned destination in the city of Santa Clarita, California. They really wanted to get folks excited about the area again (it had been off the radar for a while), and also to spread awareness to potential homebuyers outside of the Santa Clarita Valley area. Okay, so now you know that part. Here are five of our favorite things that came out of the campaign.

1. The Real People of Valencia – Before the campaign was conceived, team members got to know Valencia through its residents. After all, they are the experts. It was amazing (and instructive) to hear the enthusiasm they have for their community. Just casually chatting with them, we captured unsolicited responses about the great schools, safe neighborhoods and outstanding local amenities – they sounded like professional spokespeople! And almost every person that spoke with us described it as “awesome.” We couldn’t have asked for better inspiration.
2. Valencia Online – Part of the campaign was creating a strong online presence for Valencia. To do this we looked at the existing activity – and wow, was there a lot. We discovered that there were plenty of blogs, Facebook pages with healthy interaction, reviews of local venues and more. We leveraged that participation to create an online community center in the form of an all-new website, blog, Facebook fan page and Twitter profile. Within weeks, there were thousands of followers, great conversations and loads of comments about the new campaign. It was thrilling to see the fan base populate so quickly, and to see the passion come out in real time.
   
3. The Response – Social media sites made it easy to measure immediate reactions to the campaign. It was so fun to do Twitter searches right after we launched and read all of the “I think I just saw a bus that said ‘Awesometown’” types of updates. It was kind of funny how quickly the name stuck and people started referring to Valencia as “Awesometown.” We were thinking that we should create an “Awesometown” location in Foursquare; before we had the chance to, a resident had already done so. The fact that the concept ended up getting embraced by residents let us know that people were seeing and thinking about the campaign.
4. The Creative – In the initial concepting of the reintroduction campaign, the client let us know that they wanted something that would make a splash in their advertising. By working with a client that was game for something unique and creative, our team really got the chance to shine and explore ideas that might have been too “out there” for other projects. Everything from the copy to the photography to the ad design is different than anything else we’ve created here at Gunn/Jerkens; it’s much more cheeky and fun. And because the designs were so eye-catching, we were able to share lots of Twitpics with the team of people snapping shots of billboards and other ads with their phones.
   
5. The Contest – This was a blast. We asked for submissions that demonstrated what makes Valencia “awesome,” and the entries were great. We received hilarious music videos, cute poems, short stories, beautiful photography – the works! It was terrific to see so many people getting so excited to be involved in this whole project, and it was a lot of fun watch it all come together.

So what’s next? You’ll just have to wait and see!