Behind the Scenes of ARIUM’s Award-Winning Marketing Campaign
A three-month singing competition not only reached millions but altered the course of some residents’ lives.
A successful multifamily marketing campaign can do a lot: increase visibility, build a brand, generate leads, and convert and retain residents. But can it also change lives? Yes. This one did.
In 2022, CARROLL’s ARIUM Living launched Sounds of Summer. The campaign started as a way to engage ARIUM’s 50,000 residents and build upon the company’s national brand. It evolved into a 12-week singing competition with a finale concert livestreamed by millions.
Noah Echols, vice president of customer experience at The RMR Group, which acquired CARROLL in December 2023, has always been interested in the influence of music. His great grandmother was a professional piano player, his grandfather a trumpet player and his dad a guitarist. When he was a teenager, he played in a band that toured across Europe.
“As a kid, watching people in another country dance to music being played by people who don’t share their experience or even speak their language taught me that music can truly break down barriers,” Echols told Multi-Housing News. “Through Sounds of Summer, we saw that happen.”
EDITOR’S NOTE: Interested in entering the 2024 MHN Excellence Awards? Find out more.
Almost 150 residents signed up to join the competition, which was judged by “The Voice” and “American Idol” finalists and winners as well as nationally recognized bands, singers and actors. Over the course of three months, hundreds of resident events were held across eight states. In the end, more than six million people were reached, the ARIUM brand dramatically increased in resident satisfaction, and one resident walked away with $1,500, a month of free rent, a vacation and a newfound drive for his musical career.
The campaign has won multiple awards for its success and impact, including the Gold in the 2023 MHN Excellence Awards category for Best Marketing Campaign. And spoiler alert: It’s not over yet.
Building an award-winning campaign
The process of creating this award-winning marketing feat began long before what many might consider the starting line. In fact, its roots can be traced back several years, to when Echols reached out to Dave Fenley, a country singer who was a semi-finalist on “America’s Got Talent” and a Top 10 contestant on “The Voice.” The two first worked together on a newly acquired property that faced issues with resident satisfaction, Echols explained. Together, they orchestrated an intimate concert and developed a lasting relationship.
Fast forward to 2021, when Echols took Fenley out to dinner. They talked about a signing competition. The goal was, of course, to create brand awareness. But it was also so much bigger.
“It’s pretty easy to put some ad dollars behind a piece of creative to get it in front of people,” Echols explained. “It is much more meaningful, though, if the content feels more authentic. Our goal was to leverage the reach of national musicians to engage people around this singing competition that would change lives. At the end of the day, we wanted renters to know about us, of course, but I wanted them to walk away thinking that we truly do care.”
Once the ball got rolling, the ARIUM marketing team faced some speed bumps. The largest, according to Echols, was getting said musicians on board. “I would call management companies and record labels, and their first question would be, ‘Who have you worked with in the past?’ Well, no one,” he remarked.
Fenley was able to land substantial partnerships. Then the next challenge presented itself: organizing everything. With 100 properties, each tasked with hosting weekly events on behalf of the competition, there were more than 1,200 events plus a massive finale performance in Atlanta to coordinate. Nonetheless, the team pulled it off. Hence, an award-winning campaign.
“I am a big believer that in order to break through, you have to do things differently,” Echols said. “Sounds of Summer was an attempt to do that—to rethink the standard brand campaign by doing something more experiential.”
A far-reaching impact
From a marketing standpoint, the Sounds of Summer 2022 campaign accomplished its goal metrics and more. The initial goal, and primary key performance metric, was reach, Echols explained. More specifically, to reach two million renters in markets ARIUM serves. Ultimately, more than six million renters were reached by the end of the campaign.
For residents already living in a company property, satisfaction rose, as well. According to surveys triggered on an ongoing basis, ARIUM’s net promoter score increased by almost 80 percent in the months during and following the singing competition.
“We created a catalyst to engage and excite our residents around something really fun, and it showed up in our customer satisfaction scores,” Echols told MHN. “I believe that our local employees were more engaged, which led to better service delivery, and residents noticed that we were doing something big and different for them.”
Without a doubt, the marketing campaign impacted the ARIUM brand. But it also altered the lives of its residents.
At the time Sounds of Summer 2022 was getting started, Jason Edmond had recently suffered a loss in his family. While he was still working as a supervisor at the Broward Health Medical Center and a musician at his church, he was taking a step back to heal. That was until the people in the ARIUM front office at his residential community, where he had been living for almost five years, pushed him to enter the competition. They had already been fans of his for years.
“They were behind me 100 percent,” Edmond said. “It was like a family when I lived there. They were pushing me and rooting for me.”
The support from the ARIUM staff, as well as the larger community, helped get Edmond back on his feet and immersed in his musical career. He went on to win Sounds of Summer 2022, accept invitations to play in a number of states and countries, and grow his social media following.
Edmond recently returned from a trip to Uganda, where he headlined at a stadium for more than 100,000 people and then played at another show for 50,000. He’s gearing up to go to Sweden, then to South Africa, England and perhaps Germany.
“(Sounds of Summer 2022) definitely gave me more notoriety,” Edmond remarked. “I have no doubt it helped push me to the next level.”
Considering the impact the campaign had on its immediate KPIs as well as the larger community, brand awareness and reputation for ARIUM has been positively building since. Instead of spending ad dollars on more traditional multifamily marketing methods—amenities, advertising, content creation, etc.—ARIUM took a unique approach, and it has in many ways paid off.
“I think our residents are starting to think of us differently than most of our competitors out there,” Echols said. And it’s not over yet. In fact, it’s really just getting started. Sounds of Summer 2024 is officially underway.
Bigger and better
Despite the fact that it took place almost two years ago, videos from the 2022 Sounds of Summer finale are still being streamed. Looking back, Echols believes that the most fulfilling part of the campaign was the response from residents.
“It’s been over a year, and I still get emails from residents asking when we’re going to do it again,” Echols said. “And to let you in on a secret, we are doing it again this year, and this time much bigger.”
This year, however, there will be some changes. Perhaps the biggest difference: You do not have to be a resident of an ARIUM property to enter the singing competition. Any renter in America is welcome to join.
Further, the musicians and artists involved in the campaign this year are going to be more famous than in 2022’s campaign. Not only are these musicians and celebrity influencers going to be at the shows for the finalists, but if you make it to the finals, you’ll get to go to one of their shows. And of course, the other prizes are getting bigger, as well.
“We’re going to give away a year’s worth of free rent to the winner,” Echols declared. “Regardless of where they live. If they live with one of our competitors, great. We’ll pay their rent for a year.”
Beyond just a year of free rent, the winner will get to partner with a recording studio and have their demo professionally recorded and they will get a vacation. Guitar Center is also giving away some instruments and recording gear. Renters around the nation can begin signing up in April.
“We’re increasing our commitment to the campaign to provide more life-changing opportunities,” Echols explained.
From a marketing perspective, the ARIUM team is upping the ante. Where the goal in 2022 was to reach somewhere around two million people, the goal for 2024 is to reach 10 times as many. The team is confident. And who knows? Maybe another Excellence Award is in the future.
Editor’s note: Interested in entering the 2024 MHN Excellence Awards? Find out more.
