Greenwich Millennium Village

Brief

Greenwich Millennium Village is the Government’s first Millennium Community. Developed by Countryside Properties and Taylor Wimpey in association with English Partnerships, it is one of the first open market, private sector housing developments built to high sustainability and design standards.

Our brief was to ensure that the sustainability credentials were accurately publicised to assist in changing the prevailing attitude of homeowners towards ‘green’ technology.

Issues

The Government, through its regeneration agency, English Partnerships, now the Homes and Communities Agency, had invested a great deal in the Millennium Communities programme and Greenwich was the first example that had reached the build stage. There was a high level of expectation and pressure to ensure that the target audiences were aware of it.

The wider picture is that home purchasers will not yet pay more for an environmentally-friendly home. They like the idea, but are not yet prepared to pay extra for it. This required an important attitudinal change in the minds of the home buyers.

Campaign

A concerted media relations campaign was implemented targeting newspapers such as the Evening Standard which reach the home buying target audiences. This was complemented by a trade press campaign to ensure that the building industry as a whole was aware of the success of the initiative to encourage other developers to support the use of sustainable technology.

Results

Coverage was achieved in all the key targeted newspapers including the Financial Times and successive editorial spreads in the Evening Standard. Greenwich Millennium Village became the best-selling development in East London. Results in the trade media were equally decisive with many aspects of the sustainability work illustrated and clarified for readers. The lessons learnt with the development have been used by the Government to develop the sustainability requirement for new housing in the years to come.

Testimonial

"We have been supported throughout our building phases by knowledgeable and well informed PR. It has been invaluable to work with a consultancy that really understands our issues and requires minimal briefing to create the result we need."
Peter Willis, Development Director, Greenwich Millennium Village Limited

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