Creating an industry-first owned media outlet

Situation

Avant Homes is a top 20 UK homebuilder with a distinct position within the industry. Its properties are designed to be different and challenge convention, and this approach extends to the company’s website.

Brand8 PR was tasked with creating a new lifestyle content platform unlike anything else in the sector, to reinforce the perception of the company and challenge the conventional content expected of a typical housebuilder.

Response

Brand8 PR proposed and managed the creation of Avant Life. It is a dedicated content hub which utilises in-house content, as well as contributions from suppliers, third parties and well-known lifestyle brands.

Contributors provide a collection of inspiring, informative and engaging articles under the categories of Style, Home, Money and Life. In the style of a media outlet, an editorial calendar is created to ensure all content is topical, current and ‘of the moment’.

Brand8 PR has secured written, visual and video content contributions from a number of well-known lifestyle brands and influencers to help build an archive of interesting and helpful content on Avant Life.

We also created an extensive network of bloggers. All content supplied to Avant Life is amplified across social media for maximum awareness, bridging Avant Homes into new social networks and audiences.

Results

Since Avant Life was launched in December 2015, the platform has:

  • Published more than 650 articles, aimed at engaging, educating and inspiring our audiences
  • Achieved 389,000 pageviews on Avant Life articles
  • Driven more than 345,000 sessions to the Avant Homes website
  • Boosted organic search sessions to the website (90,031 sessions), as well as session acquired through social media (67,477 sessions)
  • Collaborated with third-party brands across a wide spectrum of industries, such as Hotpoint, American Express, B&Q, Samsung and Dobbies Garden Centre
  • Featured influencers such as personal finance journalist Felicity Hannah (BBC, ITN, Sunday Times) and UK top-10 interiors blogger Swoon Worthy
  • Achieved classification as a registered media outlet by online media database Gorkana

 

Client

Avant Homes