Stockland Cloverton

Project Commissioner

Stockland

Project Creator

Principals

Project Overview

Cloverton, in Victoria, is one of the largest community developments in Australia, a mixed-use residential, commercial and civic project that extends over 11,000 hectares and involves three local councils. It’s a future home to 380,000 residents and 50,000 workers. The site is designated a priority development zone by the State government, meaning that future hospitals, train stations and transport hubs, TAFES, universities, sporting and cultural arenas planned for the area will be built in Cloverton. It has a big future as a new metropolitan centre in Melbourne’s North. Cloverton’s scale and complexity require a cohesive branding strategy that builds a clear and differentiated market positioning, a communications framework that captures its wide-ranging product offers, and a visual identity that helps it stand out in a crowded market. But given the venture’s rare scale, it also has an exceptionally long development pipeline. The first residents moved into their homes in 2019, yet the community won’t be fully complete until the mid-2040’s. The communications challenge this creates is conveying the big and exciting future of this community, without overpromise in the short term. Of informing prospective residents, commercial and social enterprise partners of the serious community amenity to come, without suggesting it’ll be built tomorrow. Principals have created a unique identity system and messaging framework to help tell Cloverton’s rich story in an engaging and multi-faceted way. Allowing Stockland to talk to the many big, bold and often visionary ideas that it is bringing to life at Cloverton.

Team

Wayde Bull Strategy Director & Principal, Simon Wright Executive Creative Director & Principal, Rene Stekel Director of Account Management, Paris Coote Senior Account Manager, Hamish Cargill Director XXVI, Nicholas Ryan Associate Director XXVI, Darren Swain Design Director, David Cunningham Head of Production, Gareth Joe Associate Strategy Director, Emily Bird Senior Designer, Ben Williams Senior Creative Artworker, Dean Varndell Head of Motion Graphics, Hayden Mathys Motion Graphics Designer, Rhiannon Folpp Design Director, Yolanda Koning Design Director, Carolina Relander Senior Designer & Illustrator.

Project Brief

Cloverton is one of a dozen development projects in the busy northern growth corridor from quality competitors like Mirvac, MAB and Metricon. But whilst these competitive developments are smaller in scale, they’re generally further advanced, with clear streetscapes, landscaping, shops and amenities in place. Making it easier for prospective buyers to buy into. Our challenge was to build a compelling picture of Cloverton, show it’ll be the centre of life in Melbourne’s north, without overpromising on project delivery. Our key target audiences were current and potential residents, Stockland equity investors and capital partners and retail tenants. The desired outcomes from the project were: • To create fresh momentum behind the development • To rekindle internal confidence in Cloverton’s ambitious mission

Project Innovation/Need

The idea of ‘baking’ the seven big development ideals into the core identity of the Cloverton project is bold and innovative. Our comprehensive system aligns the external Cloverton brand to the core design principles they are building the community. The ‘inspiring city in the making’ idea is activated through identity, tone of voice and manifesto. “Cloverton is a visionary city where anything is possible. Full of energy and enthusiasm, we’re exploring better ways of living and working, pushing the boundaries of what’s possible, and constantly evolving to meet the needs of our community. Together, we’re looking forward with curiosity, optimism, and determination. Unafraid to explore bold ideas, try new things, and embrace big change as we bring our vision of a sustainable, nature filled, future ready city, bursting with an authentic sense of community, connection and belonging to life. Whether it’s the schools and universities we’re building to ensure Cloverton becomes a centre of learning and curiosity. The life-changing health outcomes our planned hospital and medical precinct will bring about. Our commitment is to creating a walkable city, cleverly connected to the region by road and rail. Or the inspiring impact our sustainability and net-zero goals will have on people and communities here at home, across the country, and around the world. Cloverton truly is a welcoming, vibrant, and resilient city in the making. One that’ll inspire and uplift all who call it home, for generations to come.”

Design Challenge

The repositioning project was prompted by the dramatic scaling of the project, post-COVID. Stockland needed to fill the prospect pipeline by exciting potential buyers while appropriately managing expectations. We needed to: • Differentiate Cloverton from competitors and other Stockland projects so buyers are willing to pay a premium. • Establish a clear messaging framework for the integration of the metropolitan activity centre, residential villages, parks and community amenities. • Develop an evergreen strategy to withstand market cycles over a potential 25-year sales process. • Create fresh momentum behind the Cloverton development as COVID slowed the development timeline and shook the confidence of prospective buyers in an era of rising interest rates. • Rekindle excitement around this long-term development and re-affirm Cloverton’s status as the future centrepiece of the Northern Growth Corridor. • Rekindle internal confidence in Cloverton’s ambitious mission: to create a greenfields city that thousands of Victorians choose to raise a family. The positioning strategy was developed with Cloverton’s development team and indigenous community liaisons. Our discovery involved interviews with Stockland leaders, frontline salespeople, Cloverton residents and prospects. Stakeholders were excited by the pioneering nature of the project, creating a new city true to Stockland’s purpose of believing in better ways to live. To involve customers in the project, we developed core leadership themes: • A nature-rich city • An accessible city • A sustainable city • A city of quality work • A city of learning • An inclusive city • A healthy city

Effectiveness

As the identity system is still being rolled out, its impact is best measured by its impact to date within the Stockland business: “The Cloverton rebrand has seen a profound shift in how the business perceives the project, shaping discussions with renewed purpose and enthusiasm. Not only does the new positioning empower us to think more holistically about the varied components of Melbourne’s future northern metropolitan activity centre, but it also sets a framework that allows for easy integration of these components. The work done to understand the local community’s needs and aspirations, as well as the commercial requirements of the project, means Stockland Cloverton now has a flagship identity that will allow it to proudly shape Melbourne’s northern suburbs for decades to come.” Robert Picking, Senior Community Marketing Manager – Stockland