The hive is alive with the sound of… conversation. Maybe that doesn’t have the same ring to it as “music”, but this is definitely a conversation you’ll want to listen in on.

This week we’re buzzing with Brian Brown, Vice President at Lifetime Developments. The developer has been at the helm of some of Toronto’s most acclaimed projects. And, with three uber-successful project launches, 2011 has been a very good year for the company.

The marketing for Karma Condos, The Bond and The Yorkville has been unique and creative so, of course, we were excited to speak with Brian about how these interesting campaigns came to life and all the secrets of successful, envelope-pushing marketing.

Enjoy!

BBH: How did you get started in the marketing industry?

BB: Immediately out of university, I interned at a boutique Branding and Communication firm called Ove Design. My first task was to put together a rationale on why they should spend the money to create their first Web site.

I left the firm for two years in 2000 to join Sun Life Financial as its Branding and Communications Director as they demutualized and rebranded their organization on a worldwide basis. It was an amazing experience that provided me the opportunity to travel to their international operations, learn about the different cultures and gave me a taste for what working in a large multinational organization was like.

BB: As happy as I was at Ove, I was looking for a change and a new opportunity. I was intrigued by the development industry, not just from a marketing and communications standpoint, but also from a business standpoint as well. It was very clear that the industry was on the verge of a boom and that there was tremendous opportunity for Lifetime Developments. At the time I joined, Lifetime was in the process of transitioning from a lesser known low-rise developer, then known as Lifetime Homes, to a major player in the high-rise development industry.

My first year at Lifetime exposed to me to number of their different operations including Customer Care for a subdivision in Bolton. It was the perfect opportunity for me to learn the business from the ground up. Today I’m involved in all facets of the company from site acquisition to marketing to the point of construction.

BB: We were in a boardroom with our marketing firm, Montana Steele, as they presented a variety of names and design concepts to us. Their creative campaign for The Bond was very strong and we immediately decided that we would push forward with it. As we talked about the name, we started brainstorming on how to take the campaign to the next level and beyond static traditional media.

Social Marketing has become a strong focus for our firm lately and we decided that an online contest would be a perfect way to engage the community and connect with our young, urban, Internet-savvy target market. The contest was a great success. We received over 21 submissions, and the creative for some of the concepts was extremely impressive and refined.

BB: The name and the charity idea were presented to us at the same time. When we first started working with Blackjet on this project, they met with both Lifetime and CentreCourt individually and asked us both to describe our organizations and the project. What was consistent from both our firms was our desire to act socially responsibly, to not treat a project as simply a project and to make sure that each of our developments adds tremendous value to the neighbourhood where it is built.

Karma captured this. It’s about sharing good Karma and that one person’s efforts to do good should translate into many more people trying to do good. It’s a “pay it forward” concept. For every person that who visits our Karma Web site and registers, we donate $5 to one of three local charities (Ronald McDonald House, Wellspring and Sketch). The Charity is chosen by the registrant, and they in turn are able to notify their Facebook friends that a donation was made by Karma on their behalf and encourage them to do the same.

Our website has generated over $10,000 for these charities so far! Taking this a step further, we have volunteered our time with these charities to assist them in a variety of ways. We have a number of other initiatives planned for the future, and we are very proud of how successful this project has been embraced by the community.

BB: We take our business very seriously, but at the same time, we really enjoy what we do. To me, that’s a big part of it. You have to be open to new ideas and new ways of doing things. We’ve also been very fortunate to work with some very creative people and agencies.

The secret to pushing the envelope with creative marketing is to be open to trying different things, to look beyond our borders and our industry for new ideas and concepts and to be willing to fail on occasion because not every idea is, unfortunately, a winner. Looking back, we have definitely tried a few things that have not worked in our favour and many that have but ultimately we have learned a great deal from all of our efforts.

BB: We are working on another project with a partner that we are hoping to launch early next year. I’m really excited about this development. Our last project with this partner was a great success and we have pulled together a topnotch team once again. The location for this development is also very exciting.

BB: I worked at a party supply store when I was still in high school. I remember one day being asked to get dressed up in a medieval peasant costume, and I had to stand near the corner of Dufferin and Sheppard to promote the store as people walked and drove by. It was one of my more embarrassing moments.

BB: I have been a dedicated Blackberry user and believer for years. But lately, my experience with both my device and the stock has not been a pleasant one. I’m seriously considering buying an iPhone the next time I need to replace my phone.

Thanks Brian for taking the time to buzz with us!

Here’s a bit of good news for our friends south of the border. US home prices rose in August in half of the country’s major cities, signaling that prices are stabilizing in hard hit areas.

Released on Tuesday, the Standard and Poor’s/Case Schiller index showed that prices increased in August from July in ten of the twenty cities measured.

The biggest price increases occurred in Chicago, Detroit and Washington while the greatest declines happened in Atlanta and Los Angeles.

It’s not all roses though, this is what the Globe and Mail had to say about the findings of the report:

“Home prices have stabilized in coastal cities over the past six months, helped by a rush of spring buyers and investors. But this year, home prices in many cities, including Cleveland, Detroit, Las Vegas, Phoenix and Tampa, have reached their lowest points since the housing bust more than four years ago.”

Yikes! So as usual it seems to be a bit of good news along with a healthy dose of doom and gloom. Hang in there America!

Puzzled by all the talk of S and P this and Case-Schiller that? Here’s a quick summary of what the index measures:

“The S and P/Case-Shiller Home Price Indices are the leading measures for the US residential housing market, tracking changes in the value of residential real estate both nationally as well as in 20 metropolitan regions.”

And now you know!

When the BuzzBuzzHomies visited Skyline‘s Horseshoe Resort and Village back in early September, we had good time. You might even say we had a “Barrie” good time.

But with winter looming in the not-too-distant future, one might think that the good times have stopped rolling up at Horseshoe.

Not true! The good times (and the good deals!) are still going strong and a little cold weather won’t be changing that. In fact, for the winter sports fans, chances are this is your favourite time of year to take a trip up to Horseshoe.

With 25 ski and snowboard runs, Horseshoe is nothing short of a winter wonderland. It’s truly four season resort living so really, no matter what time of year it is, you can’t go wrong up at Horseshoe.

Condos at Horseshoe Copeland House will go on sale soon and are the first phase in the master planned community.

This might come as a shock to you, but some say electric vehicles will take over half the road by 2030.

In fact, according to Lewis Poplak, VP of development and construction at Triangle West Development, electric vehicles may “eclipse combustion vehicles once the technology improves and becomes more affordable.”

Well that’s some electrifying news!

In a weekend story in the National Post, Poplak spoke about the integration of parking spots with electrical outlets and meters into Triangle West’s ART Condos development. Poplak anticipated that it would only be a matter of time before electric cars would be commercially available, so creating parking spots with outlets and meters and ensuring that the electrical capacity would be sufficient made sense.

You may remember a rather hilarious retro post we did last week about a condo ad from the 80s that we found on YouTube.

We thought it was pretty funny, especially the antiquated phone, fashion sense and cheesy jingle. What we didn’t expect was someone behind another classic 80s condo jingle, Toronto copywriter David Mills, to contact us about it!

According to David, his condo jingle hit the marketplace around the same time as the famous Paxton Place ad.

He had his composer buddy Asher Ayliffe email us the mp3 of the awesome 80s condo jingle that he wrote lyrics for. Here’s what he had to say about it:

“We were doing some GREAT broadcast work back then too, as per the attached jingle.

The project was Market Square (at Front and Church) and the builder was Ronto. I was the writer for what was then Ayliffe and Elias, and we wrote/produced this original spot with composer Asher Ettinger of Asher Music back in 1983.

“I Want To Live” was the first radio spot I ever did where we had three dozen musicians on the studio floor at one time (back in those “pre-synthesizer” days). The band was comprised of the Boss Brass plus a string section of TSO players, and included at least half a dozen Order Of Canada recipients like Moe Koffman and Terry Clarke. Special kudos go to Jeri Craden, the vocalist, who went on to include the jingle in her regular repertoire as a nightclub singer.

Back then the THBA’s SAM awards had just instituted the “Best Radio” award and this jingle copped the trophy that year, with everyone in attendance singing along when it was played over the PA.

Our job was to create an association between the Market Square’s location and its proximity to the theatre district. Even though its Liza Minelli vibe is a little old school, I still get a shiver when I listen to it almost 30 years later!

“I Want To Live” was so popular that a sequel was produced (“Goodbye Suburban Blues”) utilizing the same singer and players.”

Thanks for contacting us David! And thank you for another dose of nostalgia. Have a listen to the mp3 below…

Leslieville is one of those historic Toronto neighbourhoods that is an amazing place to live, dine and shop in, but seems chronically under-appreciated.

Despite the fact that it’s incredibly accessible and is home to Toronto’s Film District, it often gets overlooked when it comes to listing “go-to” areas.

But all of this is changing. Leslieville can definitely boast that it’s one of Toronto’s up-and-coming ‘hoods with many awesome new developments popping up to rejuvenate the historic east-end area.

One of the developments leading the change is The Carlaw, a 12 storey project by Streetcar Development and Dundee Realty.

With Dundas and Queen streetcars nearby and the Don Valley Parkway and Gardiner Expressway only a stone’s throw away, future Carlaw residents will be living in a veritable transport hub. But it’s a transport hub with one notable absence: the uncomfortable hustle and bustle. Leslieville has a relaxed atmosphere that is characteristic of many historic Toronto neighbourhoods.

Of course, you’d be wrong to think “relaxed” is synonymous with “nothing happening.” Leslieville boasts an awesome nightlife and many notable entertainment venues along Queen. The food’s good too! The Brick Street Bakery, Bobette and Belle artisanal pastries and the Te Aro coffee shop are all within strolling distance from The Carlaw.

If pub fare is your idea of fine dining then you’ve got the Ceili Cottage almost at your doorstep and if you’re in the mood for something a little classier (no offense, pub folks) then Queen Margherita Pizza is a perfect venue for enjoying some Italian cuisine.

The folks at The Carlaw sent us over a few pro pics of the neighbourhood that we thought we should share to give you a sense of what’s going on down in ol’ Leslieville (and Riverside!).

Lil Baci’s is a casual Italian Eatery. Their specialty is pizza!

Not much opera goes on here. The Opera House is one of Toronto’s most popular rock concert venues.

Table 17 is a casual neighbourhood wine bar and bistro.

Next up is the world’s largest solar-powered office building. Situated in Dezhou, China the building is completely surrounded by solar cells that continuously generate energy. It measures in at 75,000 metres squared.

This building will house the City of Hamburg’s tourism office once it’s completed in 2013. Loving the colour and the fact that it will use solar power and geothermal heat!

It’s going to be a very spooky weekend! Ghouls and goblins and ghosts will be walking the streets, vampires will be knocking on your window, zombies will be on the prowl for brains…

Wait, what? Aw man, Halloween isn’t until next weekend?? How did we mess that up? Well, looks like we blew it on our special spooky Halloween weekend event listing.

We’re still going to give you the full rundown of all the big development industry events happening this weekend — essential reading for all you hopeful homebuyers out there — it just won’t be as ghoulish as we’d planned.

On to the event list!

BC

Orchard Garden Homes by Esperanza Homes: Grand opening, 12pm, Saturday, 9388 Odlin Road, Richmond.

Saffron in Richmond by Ledingham McAllister: VIP opening, 12pm, Saturday, 101-8600 Park Road, Richmond.

Ancaster Glen by Losani Homes: Grand opening, 11am, Saturday, Garner Road East, west of Highway 6, Ancaster.