We all have different things that we love here at Arlington Strategy, and, when we were hired by Energy House last fall to manage and execute their next home tour event, I got very excited. I love events. All events. Market and manage a home tour that was open to the public, attended by the mayor AND a historic addition to beautiful Old Town, Alexandria? Yes, please!
What is Energy House?
Energy House is a partnership of companies that work together to provide residential energy upgrades throughout homes to save homeowners money by making their houses more energy efficient. Energy House offers free energy audits for homeowners interested in small fixes all the way up to whole home renovations. Energy House showcases their major projects to educate people on energy efficiency and introduce cutting edge products.
Meet Energy House 10:
Energy House 10 is a beautiful 1970’s row house across from Founder’s Park in Old Town. Charley Juris and his Energy House team worked with the owners on this whole home renovation, using geothermal drilling, mini splits, ENERGY STAR appliances, open and closed-cell insulation and solar panels on the top floor. Energy House 10 is the first house in historic Old Town to have solar panels that are visible from the street approved by the City of Alexandria.
So what did Arlington Strategy do?
Strategy. Logistics. Communications. Implementation.
Strategy – We mapped out an event plan to achieve the client’s goals within budget and on time. Our goal was to seamlessly execute the home tour, thus allowing our client to focus on what they do best: construct and create energy efficient homes and additions.
Communications – Our team developed a plan that would give our event maximum exposure. We organized a “VIP tour,” inviting elected officials to tour EH 10 several days before the public tour. We designed and placed paid advertising; released media advisories which earned our client media coverage; and we managed an email marketing campaign.
Logistics – The most time-consuming piece, and why our client needed our help. Our team is very experienced in events, and we had TONS of details to work out and prepare for. This ranged from creating classic marketing materials (door hangers, post cards, brochures, ads and signs), to finding a domain name and building a registration website to finding a nice space for a post-event dinner in the middle of March Madness. We took inventory of our client’s existing marketing collateral and created and added to that as needed. We literally put the signs together (coroplast is not forgiving!), we mapped out where they should go, we figured out parking, we made parking passes. We thought through registration, bought snacks for volunteers and water for guests and hand soap for the bathroom!
Implementation – Like many events, the week before is go time. We handled the natural hiccups that arise with major event implementation (can’t hang door hangers in the rain! people wanted different tour times!), we wrote social media and posted to community calendars. We sent out press releases. The day before the event, we loaded a U-Haul full of signage, display items, energy efficient products, hats, giveaways, tables, chairs, etc. and drove them to the house. We unloaded and left so the construction could continue.
We arrived back at the house early on March 28th to set up for our EVENT! A group of wonderful volunteers and Energy House partners helped us clean out rooms, set up tables, tent, chairs, signs, you name it. We had a group meeting just before noon and then the tours began. We manned the registration table, answered an endless stream of questions. I even watched a dog so the owners could tour the home. 🙂
Energy House 10 was a huge success. It was a frigid day but participants were energized (pun intended!), Energy House partners had great conversations about energy efficient options and homeowners walked away with new ideas on how to save energy and money. We reloaded our U-Haul, picked up all of our signs that were posted throughout Old Town, drove back to Arlington, unloaded our client’s supplies, and returned that van in one piece (#impressive).
We so enjoyed being a part of Energy House 10, and we are looking forward to the next Energy House Showcase Tour. Make sure you are on the Energy House newsletter list to get your invitation.
If you need help with your next business marketing or sales event, our team would love to chat!
’til next time,
Jess