One of our most successful national campaigns in student housing ever, was our 2022-2023 annual leasing campaign Committed. Launched in September 2022 on the basis that sporting events are the ultimate place for college students to come together and take pride in their school. The campaign's goal was to leverage this feeling of belonging and commitment to a team and channel it into gaining new lease leads and renewals. With a $10,000 scholarship up for grabs, it was time to start recruiting.

We turned to socials to help with our advertisement. Across the country, 115+ communities utilized their Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, and even BeReal feeds to circulate curated content accompanied by our simple yet effective hashtag, #Committed. We executed and tracked this social campaign using several metrics and social mediums.

The buzz around this campaign quickly started to trickle through social media channels. Our universal "Committed" theme allowed us to share lifestyle content and ideas across the country because nothing was specific to any single school or group of students. We took our theme a step further by hosting "signing days" for those ready to commit to their new home, participating in giveaways to sporting events, sponsoring tailgates, and partnering with university athletic departments.

The most successful integration of Cardinal Group Marketing's "Committed" campaign came out of Waco, TX, at our student-living community, Domain at Waco. After the NCAA announced their new NIL rule, Domain partnered with Baylor University athlete, TJ Franklin, to help spread the word to fellow students. In a quick, straightforward video, TJ highlighted Domain's amenities and services that help him "Live Like a Champ" as an athlete and student.

This partnership resulted in thousands of video views while reaching hundreds of students in the market. Additionally, engagement on Domain's profile increased by 48.9% in the following three months after posting the paid video, ultimately resulting in more followers and interactions on the Instagram page. 

Home is Where the Beat Drops was our annual marketing and leasing campaign for 2021-2022, centered around the concept that music is universal. The campaign spanned an entire leasing season for Renewals and New leases, across multiple communities and marketing within the Cardinal-managed portfolio. 

The campaign wrapped up with a giveaway for a VIP trip to a music festival of their choice. The onsite teams were also able to play off the main campaign giveaway by offering smaller giveaways to local music venues, hosting concerts on-site, and throwing their own music festival-themed events. 

Cardinal enlisted the help of Tik Tok's famous duo, Cost N Mayor to generate buzz on social media and gave the campaign the stand-out factor we were looking for. 

The award-winning campaign resulted in a 7% increase in pre-leasing YOY and a reduction in leasing concessions by 60%. The campaign also took home Gold for MHN Best Marketing Campaign and 2 Vega Digital Awards for Best Digital Marketing Campaign and Best Integrated Campaign for 2022. 

Additional campaign details can be found here.