There's something to be said for keeping it local. At least that's what Melbourne, Fla.-based Holiday Builders' marketing director Gary McCann said when he chose CK Communications (CKC), a local full-service communications firm, to work closely with the builder's marketing team on a new branding campaign for 2006. Although CKC's portfolio includes a host of national and international clients, it was the firm's close proximity—barely a half-mile—to Holiday's headquarters that sealed the deal in November.

CKC's CEO and creative director Craig Kempf says that although the partnership was born in the latter days of 2005, the two companies were able to put together a few “holiday” advertisements before the close of the year. However, going into 2006, Kempf aims to create a solid blueprint that will “focus on Holiday's growth strategy and how we can bring the company under a consistent marketing umbrella.”

Holiday's need for a unified branding strategy is fall-out from its expansion outside of the Florida market into Kentucky, Ohio, Texas, and most recently Alabama. “When you expand, there tends to be a segmenting of the brand,” Kempf explains. “Holiday was able to recognize early that it needs to ensure consistency [in its branding and marketing efforts].”

Jennifer Youngblood, Holiday's public relations specialist, reiterates, “With us growing, having an agency willing to grow with us and with a flexible nature was important.”

Another of the partnership's aims is to reposition Holiday in the minds of the home buyers. “One thing we're trying hard to do is clearly define what Holiday has to offer [home buyers],” Kempf says.

Until now, Holiday has maintained an image as a value builder—a company that builds more house for less money. However, Kempf says that Holiday's high customer satisfaction marks—the company ranked “among the best” in terms of “price and value” on J.D. Power and Associates' 2005 new-home builder customer satisfaction survey—are underleveraged in the current marketing campaign.

But for the time being, Kempf will continue his almost daily phone calls to McCann until a plan of action is finalized.

Learn more about markets featured in this article: Palm Bay, FL.