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Comprehensive marketing strategy bolsters real estate company’s positioning 

Canderel is a prominent commercial and residential real estate player with a portfolio of buildings in every major Canadian city. 
As the company undertook a significant expansion, leadership recognized the need to evolve the brand and enhance visibility to power future efforts. 

Looking to leverage its acquisition of one of the largest buildings in Montreal’s Mile-Ex district — 6600 Saint-Urbain — Canderel turned to Zerda Digital to generate market excitement around the property, telegraph its unique appeal, and build on the company’s fresh repositioning initiatives. 
With our projects in this national AI and tech hub, we’re providing flexible, smart and right-sized office spaces that genuinely fit your company’s reality, from incubation up into maturity.  

— 6600saint-urbain.com 


  • Challenges 
Timing — Canderel’s rebranding and repositioning efforts were still fresh, and the COVID crisis stunted momentum.
Lead generation — Despite the economic downturn and COVID’s impact on the real estate market, generate tenant leads that align with the area’s positioning as a tech and innovation hub, including other Canderel properties.
Wide-ranging goals — Beyond spotlighting the building, drive Canderel’s positioning as a forward-thinking player in the real estate industry through the prism of the 6600 Saint-Urbain acquisition.
Context — Create buzz around the 6600 Saint-Urbain building while the real estate industry is at a standstill; the property was purchased at the height of the COVID-19 crisis.
Social acceptability issues — 6600 Saint-Urbain is situated in an area teeming with artists. Locals are concerned with the changing real estate mix’s impact on the neighborhood’s spirit and social fabric.
Brief and mindset — The project’s ad hoc marketing team envisioned organizing an industry-typical event to “announce” the real estate acquisition. Canderel’s leadership, however, wanted to push the boundaries and explore a broader, more innovative marketing strategy. 
Once a bustling textile factory, 6600 St-Urbain is being transformed into a 21st-century loft office space, teeming with today’s economy thinkers and makers.  

— 6600saint-urbain.com 


We partnered with Zerda to re-position an office building asset to cater to the technology and start-up community. Through effective branding, a website and social media, the building increased leasing velocity and visibility. The net result being a profitable sale once the building was occupied. We could not have achieved such an exceptional result without Zerda's contribution.

Brett Miller

CEO, Canderel

  • Website
  • Micro-interactions
Industrial vibe meets digital mindset. High-tech magnet meets low-key attitude. Community spirit meets global ambitions. Montreal’s Mile-Ex has gone from an often overlooked post-industrial area to a thriving neighbourhood, with pulling power that reaches far beyond the city’s borders. 

— 6600saint-urbain.com 


  • Solutions
Digital presence

Microsite

Create a dedicated microsite for 6600 Saint-Urbain. The medium is the message: allow the target market of tech-savvy tenants to learn about the building, check availability, and connect with leasing directly — no traditional brokerage service required. 

Campaign cornerstone

Expand the microsite’s role, from a window into the 6600 Saint-Urbain building to serving as a hub that draws traffic from the other campaign tactics (see next solutions). 

Content

Put a premium on content for the microsite. Go beyond routine building facts by incorporating messaging that tells the story of the 6600 Saint-Urbain experience, from the property’s industrial past to the neighborhood’s art de vivre to Canderel’s vision for transforming the building into new office space.

SEO, SEA, Google display

Optimize the website to appear in search results. Target and re-target SEA and Google Display campaigns to potential tenants.
Research and strategy 

Workshop

Bring everyone together, Canderel’s leadership and ad hoc marketing team, for an in-depth discovery session. Define and agree on goals in one stroke.

Blank-slate strategy

Build and present to Canderel our team’s recommendations for an optimal marketing strategy, regardless of the initial event-based brief.
PR

Media strategy

Establish communication axes and key messaging, capitalizing on acquiring 6600 Saint-Urbain in the context of the COVID crisis. Reach out to strategic media outlets with the opportunity to speak with Canderel’s CEO. 
Community engagement 

Surveying the neighborhood

Involve local residents, business owners and artists in submitting concepts for a public art project tied to the 6600 Saint-Urbain building.

Fostering engagement

Invite the community to vote for their preferred concept, reaching out through geolocalized social media and digital advertising campaigns. Centralize all actions relating to project discovery and voting on the microsite. 
Target tenant market 

Proptech competition

Launch a “property technology” (proptech) contest, inviting start-ups to present innovative concepts that could be implemented as part of the 6600 Saint-Urbain building’s transformation. 

Strategic collaboration

Partner with the city’s official Innovation body — which regularly organizes tech competitions — leveraging its network and ties with the tech, innovation and start-up communities to spur participation and engage audiences in finalist selection. 
Video production 

Amplify Canderel's voice

Produce two videos with Canderel’s project team, including the company’s CEO. Emphasize authenticity and address key messages on multiple fronts, from COVID-related real estate challenges to contributing to communities to transforming 6600 Saint-Urbain with the future in mind. 

Reinforce the positioning

Go viral with videos that encapsulate the story and creation of the public art concept selected by the community. Juxtapoze Canderel’s perspective with artist Izabelle Duguay’s vision, creative process, and execution of two striking street art murals. 

Resonate with target tenants

Increase visibility for Canderel and 6600 Saint-Urbain among tech, innovation and start-up communities. Present videos about each proptech contest finalist. Broadcast a live event with the city’s Innovation body, sparking a conversation about innovation in the real estate industry, showcasing concepts, and revealing the proptech contest winner.
  • Social media
  • Impact
Local residents, artists, and business owners are involved in the public art selection process and experience the creation and final artwork first-hand.
Canderel positioned as an innovation-driven real estate player among target segments of the office real estate market.
Overall campaign tactics driving traffic to the 6600 Saint-Urbain microsite (ads, SEO, art installation, proptech contest, PR, video content).
Canderel CEO interviews resulted in articles from the city’s most important French and English newspaper outlets and a story from a foremost French television news channel.
Through added-value content and storytelling, enhancing the 6600 Saint-Urbain building’s appeal and simultaneously reinforcing Canderel’s image as a forward-thinking real estate company invested in building communities:
 
 – 6600 Saint-Urbain microsite content – Video content – Social media content – Media coverage – Project story
Office tenant prospects reached out directly to leasing after landing on the 6600 Saint-Urbain microsite through organic search, digital advertising, visibility from the public art, proptech contest, and PR tactics.
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