Feature Writing Case Study: Lake Carolina Vendor Tab

Situation

Lake Carolina is a master planned community located in the northeastern suburbs of Columbia, South Carolina that embraces the New Urbanism concept of development. A collection of more than thirty interconnected, traditional neighborhoods with a thriving retail center situated around a 200-acre freshwater lake, Lake Carolina was recently named Community of the Year for the sixth year in a row by the Homebuilders Association. Lake Carolina Development hired Davis Public Relations and Marketing to develop a special advertising section (“vendor tab”) for The State newspaper to celebrate their achievements and to market the community to readers.

Strategy

The strategy for the vendor tab was to describe how and why Lake Carolina is taking a leadership role in shaping and changing the dynamics of Northeast Columbia, one of the most rapidly-growing communities in South Carolina. The vendor tab would market the community by painting a picture of the “Lake Carolina Lifestyle” and all of the choices that the community offers to its residents, business owners and builders. We decided to demonstrate this through feature stories, photographs and graphics focused on business/real estate, lifestyle, resident profiles, health and wellness, education and events.

Tactics

Davis Public Relations and Marketing worked closely with Lake Carolina and The State newspaper to develop an outline for the section that would meet the client’s goals within the publication’s parameters. From an eye-catching front page that would invite the reader to open the section to the range of stories that would address each of the community’s key benefits, we developed the creative strategy and mapped out the stories needed. We wrote or ghost-wrote a majority of the articles and worked with the newspaper’s design staff to encourage the development of visuals that would not only complement the stories but also “sell” the reader on the idea of living and/or working at Lake Carolina. We also coordinated with local politicians and the principals of the two schools located in the community to place articles describing their views of Lake Carolina.

Results

The Lake Carolina special advertising section appeared in The State newspaper on the Sunday before Easter. This was ideal timing since the vendor tab was used as the wrapper for that week’s numerous pre-Easter advertising circulars. The circulation was 149,000 with an overrun printing of 5,000 to be used as marketing pieces for Lake Carolina.