by threshold | Nov 11, 2016 | All, Culture
Name: Billy Wilkinson
Title: Chief of Everything Else
Billy helps Threshold manage all the little details that go into apartment marketing. Whether’s he’s coming up with student housing marketing ideas or crunching financial numbers, Billy puts in the hard work every day.
Get to know Billy below!
What are 3 words you would use to describe Threshold?
Amazing, Proven, Real
If you had an office nickname, what would it be?
I…have….no…idea…Probably best to ask everyone else this question?
What is your favorite line from a movie?
Do I make you randy baby?
If you were stuck on an island, what three things would you bring?
Pinot Grigio, a lighter, and a boat!
What is the title of your autobiography?
Now you see him. Now you…still see him.
What is/would be your motto or slogan?
The only thing you are guaranteed when you are born is that you are going to die. Your life in between is only as good as you make it.
If you had a superpower, what would it be?
Telepathy.
What is your hidden talent?
Grilling some mean experimental burgers!
If you were famous, what would it be for?
Something business oriented.
Favorite Austin eats?
Whatever’s new. Austin is always opening amazing new eateries to try.
by threshold | Sep 29, 2016 | All, Culture
Name: John Wilkinson
Title: Chief Strategy Officer, CAS
John develops student housing marketing ideas like it’s his job. Oh wait it is. His extensive experience in apartment marketing helps Threshold tackle the tough projects every day.
Get to know John below!
What are 3 words you would use to describe Threshold?
Experienced. Innovative. Communicative.
If you had an office nickname, what would it be?
Yoda – cuz I’ve been around WAY TOO LONG.
What is your favorite line from a movie?
If you can’t say anything nice about anybody, come sit by me.
If you were stuck on an island, what three things would you bring?
Bug spray. Suntan Lotion. And every issue of Architectural Digest.
What is the title of your autobiography?
Against The Odds.
What is/would be your motto or slogan?
Easily Amused.
If you had a superpower, what would it be?
switching topics so fast it would blow someone’s mind.
What is your hidden talent?
Juggling. So hidden, I haven’t found it.
If you were famous, what would it be for?
Singer in a boy band.
Favorite Austin eats?
Piranha Killer Sushi
by threshold | Feb 18, 2016 | All, Culture
CREATIVE OPERATIONS MANAGER
About Threshold
Threshold Agency is among the top residential full-service marketing and interactive agencies in the country. We help our clients navigate the rapidly changing world of residential marketing and brand building by providing clear strategies that work, brands that resonate with their markets, and the expertise and experience to implement these strategies across all marketing channels.
At Threshold, we take pride in partnering with our clients to ensure seamless delivery of superb messaging. We’re not building cookie-cutter approaches to some of life’s biggest decisions.
About This Job
You are a multi-tasking, organizing king or queen with a strong attention to detail. You’re the type of person who has to stay organized to survive. You have checklists for checklists. You understand all aspects of the creative, design, digital and printing process. You never present a problem, rather find a solution. You get things done and always strive to improve current processes and systems.
You have experience in an agency setting, a print shop or for an in-house creative/marketing team.
On a daily basis, this position will manage and prioritize the workflow of our designers; ensuring deadlines are met and clients are happy. Under the direction of our account team, you may also work directly with our clients to provide printing/project estimates, collecting assets, communicating deadlines and managing client expectations.
Threshold offers a flexible work environment with competitive pay commensurate with experience. We provide and pay for your health benefits, love happy hours, and having fun while working to finish deliverables. Mimosas are not foreign to our team meetings.
You already live in or want to live in the creative capital of Texas – Austin.
Core Duties/Responsibilities
Production/Traffic
• Serve as a liaison between the account management team and our digital and design teams
• Prioritize our designer’s workflow (everything from print ads to digital ads to large format signs) and ensure all assets are received to complete a project
• “Own” and manage our project management system on a daily basis
• Receive project requests from our account management team or directly from clients; own the project from the concept to completion
• Proof and edit all deliverables prior to sending to client
• Ensure all team members prescribe to file management organization and maintain image resource files
• Provide recommendations and develop tools to improve internal and external (client-facing) processes and systems with regards to receiving new projects, processing and proofing of deliverables
• Ensure all team members prescribe to file management organization and maintain image resource files
• Potential to assist in sending files to print and serve as point of contact for our printers and other vendors; ensure client deadlines and expectations are met
Collaboration
Works enthusiastically, respectfully and collaboratively with other project team members, has a clear understanding of how a project team operates, their responsibilities throughout a project and what is expected in critiques and team meetings.
Project Execution
• Consults with supervisor or project’s creative lead to evaluate individual project needs and proactively raise issues that may impact quality or timing of deliverables and offer solutions.
• Actively participates in team meetings to discuss assignment parameters
• Ensures that internal deadlines, timetables and approval procedures are adhered to for assigned project phases
• Manages and prioritizes work effectively, and proactively escalates conflicts with workloads
Required Skills/Knowledge/Experience
• Excellent eye for detail, well organized, good-natured, dedicated, flexible and passionate, you bring a deep understanding of what it takes to successfully market and lease apartments with a focus on digital tactics to do so. A Bachelor’s degree is preferred, but not required.
• Strong organizational skills
• 2-3 years experience in the multifamily, student housing or senior living industries preferred
• Excellent communication skills
• Experience with project management systems (we use Wrike)
• Ability to work independently with limited supervision on projects
• Understanding of digital (pay-per-click, retargeting, SEO) and social media strategies preferred
• Experience in WordPress a plus
• Has managed multiple assignments at the same time (including organizing and prioritizing workload and working efficiently under pressure in a deadline-driven environment)
• Basic understanding of graphic design and printing environments preferred
• Excellent interpersonal skills, a positive attitude, a sense of humor and the ability to thrive in a collaborative agency environment
Sound like a good fit? Please send your cover letter, resume and salary requirements to jobs@thresholdagency.com
by threshold | Aug 17, 2015 | All, Tech/Web
At Threshold, the Anti-Vacancy Agency, we know that great photography is the basis of good advertising to attract your future residents. As the saying goes, “People buy with their eyes.” Even though they may not be making a decision to purchase, they will be drawn to high quality imagery of your property in their search for their next sanctuary. Great photography = fewer vacancies.
How attractive is your property “profile” photo?
If you are perusing profiles on an online dating site, besides reading clever bios, you’ll more likely be attracted to those with a lovely, current photo aren’t you? Appearances may not be everything, but it’s a good basis to begin, isn’t it? The same philosophy applies to your property “presence” on and offline. We must always have beautiful, up-to-date images to present to our potential renters. As branding and marketing experts, Threshold is ready to get you all the attention your property deserves.
How current are your photos?
When was the last time your student housing community multi-family apartment complex, senior living facility or single family home development was photographed? The last time you completed a renovation? That’s not often enough. If a client arrives on site, having seen seedling trees on your web site, yet you have mature shading oaks, you have short-changed your public image. If you’ve got it, flaunt it! Plan to photograph your community every time you have a change of season. People love coziness from the winter cold, enjoy strolls through the trees during fall color, gazing at fresh flower gardens in the spring, and will visualize themselves beating the heat in your turquoise pool in summer. Help them channel their future lifestyle!
If you do have regularly scheduled photos taken, have you positively portrayed all of the amenities you offer? …that Olympic-size pool, gleaming high-rise tower, well-appointed apartment, state-of-the-art game room, and lavish landscaping…
Why not?
Okay. So where do you begin if you are photography-challenged? Ask yourself these questions:
What is your properties’ strongest selling point? Facilities? Amenities? Location? Lifestyle? The strategy to promote each of these is very different AND each requires a different STYLE of photography. See examples below:
So, you have your strategy in place, are you ready for a photographer? Not yet.
First, make a comprehensive list of property features you wish to promote and photograph:
- Amenities (swimming pool, fitness center, cardio/yoga spaces)
- Model room interiors (flat screen TVs, kitchens, bedrooms, living areas, balconies, baths)
- Public room interiors (club houses, venues, dog parks)
- Prominent landscapes (vistas, luxurious gardens, lakes, trees)
- Notable architecture, monuments, nearby universities
- Do you want to include models in the shoot? What is your plan to recruit models (professional models or residents and/or staff members)?
Once your list is complete, we will plan a photo shoot that maximizes the best time of day to capture all on your list so that you have a gorgeous library of images at your fingertips for every marketing and advertising occasion.
What’s the secret of gorgeous images of building exteriors, interiors, landscaping and portraiture? The time of day the photos were taken.
Best times of day for great photos? Low light.
Low light is between 7am and 10am, and again from 4pm to 7pm. This is the best natural light to showcase your property. Long graceful shadows drape across architectural details, golden sunlight trace the edges of your beautiful landscaping and people will glow with warm sunlight on their shoulders. Otherwise, between 11am and 3pm, the sun beats down, creating harsh shadows on faces, bleached-looking gardens and creates a near black-and-white color spectrum. Even interior shots can be a challenge because the light through the windows is too strong. See examples below:
A word about resolution.
Even though cell phone cameras are making amazing advances, in order to use your photos for print and web, the resolution must be at least 12 megapixels. Even then, phone cameras have limited crispness. It is best to hire a professional photographer with high-resolution and light adjustment capabilities to insure your property always looks its best! And technology is only part of capturing quality images – the composition is key to capturing the best pictures. A high-resolution picture is all for not, if the composition of the picture is off.
Take a step in the direction towards a vacancy-free community, and schedule your photo shoot today with Threshold.
by threshold | Mar 13, 2014 | All, Marketing
At this year’s SXSW music/film/interactive festival here in Austin, a company set up shop to collect unwanted promo items and then donate the items to area homeless shelters. Read the story here. While great for the shelters and a clever recycling campaign, probably not where these brands intended their promo items to end up.
With the leasing season at its peak, you’re probably in the middle of re-stocking your promo inventory. How do you ensure your promo doesn’t get trashed and your marketing dollars are well spent?
As with many student housing marketing strategies, it’s market dependent. Make sure you’re tapped into the local scene and trends. Is neon still popular on campus? Are students passionate about environmental products? Trucker hats used to be in, then were out, and now I think they’re back in. And get your student staff feedback before you order items. Encourage them to come up with new ideas every year.
Remember that promo items are extensions of your brand. What does hand sanitizer or air freshener say about your brand? That you’re dirty and smell bad? Also make sure your items are high quality and actually work. You don’t want to be known as that-apartment-community-that-gives-out-broken-pens.
Go with items that are extension of your marketing message and lifestyle brand. Think beach towels (resort lifestyle), water bottles (fitness center) and sunglasses (style). To connect your brand to university athletics, consider rally towels, foam hands or boom sticks.
There is also a fine line between stingy (“Only take one pen!!”) and excessive (“Hey little sister and little brother, take these bags filled with $15 worth of promo”). Find the right balance that fits your budget and leasing velocity. Make sure your entire staff understands the policy. Also know which events (housing fairs, orientations) are worth the expensive items (t-shirts, tote bags, mugs). Save the less expensive items (pens, cups) for your daily marketing efforts.
Also consider limited edition items that are only given to future residents or renewals. Actually print “limited edition” on the item to create buzz. And because these students have already chosen your community, chances are better they will actually use the items.
Finally, make sure to re-examine your promotional product strategy every leasing season. Just because something was popular last season doesn’t mean it will be popular next. It also doesn’t hurt to check Goodwill or the campus dumpster for your items.
