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When top-producing REALTORS® Michael Golden and Thaddeus Wong started @properties in 2000, they had a crystal clear vision for a next-generation brokerage firm that would cater to Chicago’s upscale urban crowd. What the fledgling company didn’t have was an established brand in an industry that values longevity and past performance. Enter Taylor Johnson & Olesker.
Over the course of a five-year relationship, Taylor Johnson & Olesker has helped @properties build one of the strongest local real estate brands through a wide variety of marketing initiatives, but like so many successful branding efforts it all began with PR.
Before we wrote a single press release or pitched a single editor, we spent a lot of time learning about what drives the company and what sets it apart from its competition. We recognized that @properties had a very unique image: youthful, energetic and cutting-edge but eminently professional. That image would guide our communications efforts as we identified, prioritized and pursued the best channels for promoting the company within the media.
We presented @properties as a company with a fresh perspective. Mike and Thad were willing to speak with the media in almost any situation and both displayed a talent for offering original insights and colorful quotes. We emphasized – and they embraced – the importance of being available to reporters wherever/whenever. Few brokers were as active as Mike and Thad, so we could offer them up on any variety of topics, and offer we did. They weighed in on existing homes sales, new-construction developments and neighborhood trends, as well as the ups and downs of being young entrepreneurs. Because Mike and Thad were also naturally good speakers, we successfully pursued interview opportunities with radio and television. They quickly became respected and sought after sources for the city’s real estate and business media.
Despite the sheer number of stories in which @properties appears, PR for the firm has always been a strategic endeavor. Every opportunity with the media brings the company one step closer to accomplishing some predetermined goal, whether that’s building credibility, increasing awareness, targeting development companies, attracting new agents or reassuring the average homebuyer.
PR is doing a good job and taking credit for it, and over the last seven years in the city of Chicago, no one has done a better job of selling residential real estate than @properties. And thanks to Taylor Johnson & Olesker, they’ve taken credit for it in dozens of important media outlets including the Chicago Tribune, Chicago Sun-Times, Crain’s Chicago Business (“40 Under 40” and “Fast Fifty”), and Inc. magazine (“Inc. 500” and “Inc. 5000”).
Beyond media relations, Taylor Johnson & Olesker provides copywriting and consulting services for @properties’ print and Web-based marketing initiatives, customer appreciation programs, b2b campaigns and grassroots marketing.
A Bullish View on Home Sales, Chicago Tribune, Sunday,
April 29, 2007
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Does @properties Have Secret Sauce? Chicago Sun-Times, December 6, 2006
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Crain’s Chicago Business Profile of Thad Wong,
November 3, 2003
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