The Focus Group partnering with The UKAA to support BTR companies
With over 20 years in the property industry, The Focus Group has developed a deep understanding of the property marketing realm throughout the lifecycle of a development.
The three arms of The Focus Group are already supporting the property market in its respective specialisms.
Focus on Media is the Group’s expert in all things media planning and buying, and can offer this sector an understanding of who our target audience is, what they consume, and when they consume it, and can implement media plans to put our clients’ offerings in front of them.
Focus IMC is a creative agency that moves audiences by applying the relevant look, feel, style and messaging to a target market through the suggested channels from the media plan, and also implement the full marketing communications strategy.
Focus Experiential creates spaces people love through design and build, taking the learnings from Focus on Media and Focus IMC and applying them to onsite environments ensuring the customers’ first experience on site aligns itself with media and marketing to ensure a consistent customer journey. This manifests in facilities such as communal areas, community hubs, workspaces, gyms, concierges, offices and marketing suites or letting offices, signage and wayfinding.
Our work with industry heavyweights Folio London, Telford Homes and Greystar have given us a good grounding and introduction to this industry. However, in recent times, we have started to delve deeper into the approach needed for Build to Rent (BTR) developments and their more cyclical nature.
In addition to committing to membership with The UKAA, we undertook a Censuswide renters’ survey to assimilate intelligence that could assist us in understanding the mood of renters during the pandemic, and in particular, their attitudes towards new BTR developments. The results provided invaluable insight into the sentiment and societal tendencies of renters in England.
Growing pessimism amongst Gen Z renters, coupled with their lack of confidence in their future was evident. However, a clear interest in renting once the pandemic draws to a close was demonstrated. Interestingly, their post-pandemic decision-making has several new factors to consider – access to private and/or nearby open green spaces, and the space to work from home.
From an advertising perspective, 84% of the renters we spoke to noted that they hadn’t seen any form of advertising from PRS brands in the last 30 days across digital and traditional media.
The combination of surveys, our UKAA membership and ongoing research through panels are evidence of the important investments we’re making as we expand our expertise beyond residential sales marketing and strive to better support the BTR market.
“The PRS survey was really enlightening and has already proved useful in supporting our ongoing projects with our Build to Rent clients, however, we’re determined in investing further in this flourishing industry.
“It’s clear we can’t copy and paste what we know works in residential sales, and partnering with The UKAA to collaborate and learn from its members is a commitment by The Focus Group to invest in this sector.” – James Mercer, Chairman.
To receive a copy of the results from our PRS survey, or partner with us to explore more research, please get in contact.