Branding for East Coast

Multifamily Marketing East is the premier East Coast multifamily marketing event. Held in Baltimore, Maryland, it’s exclusive—invitation-only. This year it’s free for invited attendees, and includes access to all the sessions, plus breakfast, lunch, and refreshments during the conference. (Does branding for the East Coast get you as excited as we are?)

Why are we so excited about it? Two reasons:

1. Zipcode Creative is sponsoring Multifamily Marketing East.
   
2. Zipcode Creative helped brand this BRAND NEW conference for multifamily.

So you might say we’re a little invested and a LOT EXCITED!

Why’d we get involved? We know that there are a lot of multifamily conferences. They end up being in California, Las Vegas, and Texas—and plenty of others bounce around all over the country.

But what if there was a conference for multifamily that was on the East Coast, where the BULK of multifamily housing actually IS?

A few quick stats for you, reader:

→New York State has the highest number of existing homes classified as multifamily: 52.5%. Close on its heels are two other East Coast states: Massachusetts and Rhode Island.

We agree: It was time for an East Coast multifamily marketing event.

The Vision Behind MME’s Branding

Our expertise in branding, specifically for multifamily, led us to an opportunity to brand MME. We took our process, and we channeled it through the vision and purpose of MME to get the attendees we most wanted to attract.

VISION

The creators of the Multifamily Marketing East conference wanted to see a conference that was made to give everyone a voice and was more about passion over profit. Together, we envisioned an upscale retreat, not a huge, wild party with more entertainment than education and heard-it-before, recycled content.

PURPOSE

Multifamily Marketing East was made to bring people together, around good food, good drinks, and fun, intimate events. The content offered will be thoughtfully designed, and the tables will be set up to foster new relationships and solid networking.

USING MME BRANDING TO ATTRACT MARKETERS

We needed to convey the message that MME 2024 was built differently. We wanted to bring in multifamily digital marketers, and invited mid-level management up to senior level executives.

Branding is obviously our jam at Zipcode Creative, and so we were tapped to attract marketers with branding—this would help solidify trust in MME, even as a new venture, and would help portray the vision and purpose of the conference through its logo, colors, and messaging. And while it’s a little different than apartment brand design, we followed a similar process.

Branding for East Coast: Branding Development Process

RESEARCH AND DISCOVERY
The best way to get to know a brand? Ask a lot of questions. So, when we worked through the brand questionnaire, we asked fun questions like, if MME were a ______ (drink, car, celebrity, song—take your pick) what would it be? Taking those answers plus the rationale behind the choice informed where we would take the branding and why.

For example, the celebrity MME’s founders chose: Tom Hanks or Jennifer Lawrence. They’re down-to-earth and manage to take complex roles and make them easy to understand. In the same way, they want MME to be friendly, approachable, and distill complicated ideas into helpful resources.

UNDERSTANDING THE REGION

After we sifted through the brand questionnaire, we immersed ourselves in the look and feel of the east coast region, to deepen our understanding. The preferences of east coasters and the regional style not just of the east coast area, but the region of Baltimore began to take shape.

When we create branding for East Coast apartments or communities, we take a look at the local flavor. For example, Virginia is relatively colonial. Upstate New York, New Hampshire, and Maine—cape cods and coastal vibes (and probably lobster, if we’re talking local flavor.) A more industrial, yet historical feel is perfect for Boston. And then we get tropical (and sun-faded but still bright colors) if we’re in Miami. And Atlanta is the heart of and soul of good ol’ Southern hospitality.

The East Coast is about as diverse in associations and assumptions as the North, Central and South bits of California—in views, vibes, and architecture. It’s absolutely not one conglomerate that has one identity—and that’s why looking deeper into the specific area can offer up some entirely unique branding opportunities.

Creative Approach

THE PROCESS

As we moved toward Baltimore and homed in on the location of the conference, we began to get more granular with the location—just as we would with developing apartment branding.

CONTEXT IS KEY

The Pendry – The MME conference will be held at The Pendry, a luxe waterfront hotel in Baltimore. So we looked carefully at the architecture, colors, and style of the hotel, to keep every piece visually connected. To amplify what the space looks like, we leaned into the venue, with imagery of the Sagamore Pendry. We used filters to stylize for the brand vibe and the map of Baltimore became a prominent style piece in which we truly celebrated location. Additionally, the color palette was a more fun, vibrant play on the brick buildings of Baltimore, and the yellow found in Maryland’s state flower, the black-eyed susan.  All of this was dovetailed into the brand for MME. Plus, with the hotel being on the water, we added in both classy and fun elements.

Baltimore – The greater Baltimore area, the downtown skyline and a birds’-eye-view of Baltimore’s street grids both functioned as an additional visual motif.

Time of Year – Given that the conference is in May, positioned at the very start of summer, we wanted something cheerful, so we chose the aqua color for the MME’s classic logo. For each year, we may choose a different set of colors, and for 2024, we went with corals and burgundy, with a mustard to create contrast.

Additionally, the four corners of the MME logo function like a compass, with the directional arrow pointing East. The sharp corners give a feel of modernity while the angled letters inject a bit of playfulness.

The branding development process to create the Multifamily Marketing East conference was a labor of love—not unfamiliar, but still exciting to execute. Recognizing that regional branding is vital in the multifamily industry, we took the surroundings and allowed them to infiltrate the brand for MME on the surface and beneath it. The East Coast is where the United States began—it’s full of history and knowledge from those that came before us, and is the perfect place for the next gamechanging conference for multifamily to take place.

Learn more about Zipcode Creative’s branding projects and process.