Carly Catalana and Kevin Wilson of Southern Land Co. talk to MHN Editor Corina Stef about tips that can guide development, positioning and the resident experience.
Multifamily marketing used to focus on what sat inside the four walls: the kitchens, the fixtures, the views. Today it’s about lifestyle, community and the experience a brand delivers long after move-in day. The strongest multifamily marketing strategies help shape places, not just promote them.
This episode of Multi-Housing News’ Top Marketers podcast explores how multifamily marketing strategies can guide development, positioning and the resident experience in multifamily, master-planned and mixed-use communities.
Joining us are Carly Catalana and Kevin Wilson, senior vice presidents and co-heads of marketing at Southern Land Company. Together they lead marketing strategy across a national portfolio of multifamily, mixed-use and master-planned communities. Catalana started out in luxury fashion and Class A shopping centers, and her focus is branding, placemaking and activations. Wilson spent years at Toll Brothers, Home Properties and Kushner, and he brings deep experience in research, consumer insights and performance.
The two call themselves “yin and yang.” They explain how sharing the top marketing role works and how Southern Land’s vertically integrated, hold-to-own model gives marketing a seat at the table from day one. That ranges from choosing amenities for a 55-plus community to adding infrared saunas as wellness becomes a top request from residents.
The conversation covers why ‘the community will tell you what it is,’ how storytelling and data work together to fill hard-to-lease units, and what multifamily marketing strategies can learn from master-planned development. Key topics include building a cohesive brand across apartments, for-sale homes and hospitality, avoiding cookie-cutter development, nurturing prospects over several years, attribution problems in a world with many touchpoints and what multifamily can learn from master-planned marketing.
- From Fashion and Hospitality to Real Estate (0:53)
- Marketing Places, Not Just Apartments (6:39)
- Co-Heads and a Vertically Integrated Model (9:41)
- Marketing from Day One (15:10)
- Master-Planned vs. Multifamily (21:45)
- One Brand, Many Identities (26:10)
- Storytelling Meets Data (31:56)
- When the Community Tells You Who It Is (40:16)
- Attribution, AI and Protecting the Brand (49:01)
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