Explore Living announced as 'Housebuilding Innovator of the Year'
Published on 24-Oct-2008
Explore Living received the prestigious Home Builders Federation 2008 Best Marketing Innovation Award for Essex-based development Quest Place in Maldon and the Housebuilding Innovator of the Year Award, Small to Medium size Housebuilders Category, at a gala ceremony held at the Millennium Hotel London on Thursday 23 October.
The clever use of technology and a strategic marketing partnership with former Quest Place site owner Quest Motors were sited as the main reasons the development receiving the Best Marketing Innovation Award which set the precedent for the Housebuilding Innovator of the Year Award. The Marketing Innovation Award was judged on ‘marketing a new development with imagination and innovation’ while the Housebuilding Innovator Award required ‘smaller housebuilders that employed imaginative initiatives whilst demonstrating long-term commitment.’
Fun innovations at the Quest Place sales and marketing suite, located along the High Street in Maldon, include an interactive touch screen system featuring an ‘attract sequence’ which encourages visitors to research the development by themselves, external 3D walkthroughs of the development and animations which brings interiors and floor plans to life. The development’s show house boasts an interactive iPod system that highlights typically unseen benefits of the home through audio playing throughout the house.
Explore Living partnered with Quest Motors in January 2008 to offer purchasers a free brand new Saab 9-3 car as an incentive for purchasing a brand new family home.
Judges of the Housebuilding Innovation Award said of the Best Marketing Innovation category: “Explore was the darling of this category, thanks to its use of technology and the clever Saab promotion. The judges were impressed by Explore’s interactive touch screen system and the use of animation and voiceover to enhance the customer’s home buying experience.”
Judges for the Housebuilding Innovator of the Year Award commented: “Explore Living’s marketing entry demonstrated its unique and fun ethos with clever use of the latest technology and recognition of the scheme’s link to Quest Motors which led to an imaginative tie-in. Explore also impressed the judges with its approach to developments which is a customer focused and imaginative service.”
John Inglis, Explore Living Sales and Marketing Director commented: “Receiving an innovation award for our Quest Place development and to be recognised as a fun, imaginative housebuilder is quite an achievement. This award confirms that though we are a relatively young company, we are striding ahead in terms of our sales and marketing activity.”
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