Client:
Imery Group
Industry:
Green Building
Challenge:
Leverage national recognition to increase regional business opportunities for a custom builder of smart homes.
What We Did:
We began working with Imery Group in 2013, when they built a net-zero energy home in the sustainable planned community of Serenbe, south of Atlanta. We helped attract national attention for that project, and since then Imery Group has continued to build an impressive portfolio of custom green homes around metro Atlanta and in Northeast Georgia. In 2016, we conducted two locally targeted PR campaigns for Imery Group to publicize an open house event for a new Zero Energy Ready Home, as well as an award from the U.S. Department of Energy on another net-zero home.
How We Did It:
Imery Group is one of the only builders in Georgia committed to the U.S. Department of Energy’s Zero Energy Ready Home program, and the company has built more of these certified high performance homes than any other builder in the state. That’s the hook we used to attract local and regional press coverage for an open house in the north Metro Atlanta community of Chamblee. We prepared a press release that could be converted easily into a short news article explaining the relatively unknown DOE program and the benefits of a high performance home. A New Growth associated photographer produced a gorgeous collection of images to accompany the press release. Then we carefully selected a small number of regional publications with a high likelihood of covering the story and personally reached out to editors. Several months later, we repeated the process when Imery Group was named a Grand Winner for Innovation in Custom Homes by the Department of Energy.
Outcomes:
In total, we contacted 15 publications, resulting in 12 pieces of news coverage from 11 outlets—a success rate of 80 percent. Coverage included two articles in the Atlanta Journal Constitution (one of which was a feature in their Sunday Homefinder section). More than 100 people showed up for the open house event, and Imery Group said it saw direct results from the press coverage, including eight qualified leads for new-home projects and a 30 percent spike in web traffic.
“Bart is our go-to for media relations planning and execution,” said Imery Group CEO, Luis Imery. “He understands the unique importance of what we do, and he knows how to present it to mainstream media at the right scale. We’ve worked together now for several years, and he continues to impress. Hands down a great investment, and good value overall.”
