Adding value to property developments

Duplex Real Estate Branding have been appointed agents for Yoo, the world-renowned interior design, branding, and investment property company enhancing the quality and adding value to office, hotel and residential property developments in major towns and cities across the world.

Keith Pillow, managing director of Duplex Real Estate Branding, which markets and brands real estate projects, is ecstatic about the prospects, saying Yoo will not only give the company the edge in opening new international frontiers, but the potential of involving Yoo in Malta will attract other international investment into the country.

"As a creative service company we always try to find new ways of differentiating one project from the other. In today's competitive market, this is very important and today we are working with various concepts of branding. You can brand through lifestyle or through architecture. For example, Portomaso without the tower would be a different Portomaso.

"There is branding through existing brands such as Kempinski which is associated with a high level of hospitality service and there is also branding through interior design such as when it is stated 'project designed by Phillipe Starck' ," he said.

Mr Pillow mentions the local example of the Tigné Point project which associated itself with Pippa Toledo "who is a very good designer".

He adds: "Tigné Point is a beautiful stand alone project, but when they reviewed the offering and included Pippa's designs, the product was better. I believe her involvement encouraged more people to buy into the project."

Mr Pillow said that the opportunity to work with Yoo was a natural development for the company. "The first time we proposed an international project to them we were surprised how open-minded they were, and how much they would listen to understand new ideas.

"Many already know the individual designers behind the Yoo brand, but over these last few years the brand has really grown. Today the Yoo brand not only means interior design, but is a quality and style guarantee for the projects that they work with. Yoo was originally a joint collaboration between a very successful developer, John Hitchcox and the world-renowned interior designer Philippe Starck. They have together formed the Manhattan Loft Corporation and inspired the London Loft Living revolution. Today Yoo are developing 25,000 apartments, worth apromately $10 billion worldwide.

"Yoo involves probably the best team of interiors designers in the world including Starck, Jade Jagger - daughter of rock star Mick Jagger who is also known for her own catwalk fashion collection - and, last but not least, Marcel Wanders. All are individually very unique."

Mr Pillow explains that if his company contracts Yoo to design a project, part of the marketing strategy for the project, whether it is residential or a hotel, would simply be to say "by Yoo".

Through Yoo's success, he says, the global group - which is present worldwide - has managed to attract the attention of successful investors and high-income individuals, as well as the press. In 2007 alone they estimated they got $9 million worth of editorial coverage worldwide.

"Yoo have realised that although our company is small and based in Malta, we are on their same wavelength and that there are no boundaries when it comes to property development. We have been given worldwide agency representation, so if, for example, I have a request for a project in Libya, Morocco or China, and I think that the Yoo brand will add value, I can propose it to the corporate office, and they will consider it.

"If this is then accepted the Yoo design team will come in, and propose new designs that will add value and give identity to the project. Once this is approved we will work closely with their international marketing network to market the project. In Canada for example, two-thirds of a Yoo project was sold in five hours from launch just because it was designed by Yoo."

Yoo thinks that conventional property limits people's options, he says. "They have a very experienced management team who really get it. They understand what people want to buy, how to raise profile, when to maximise value and how to manage a complex development to successful completion.

"We are very proud of our association with the Yoo brand which will obviously create a number of opportunities for our company," Mr Pillow said.

Duplex Real Estate Branding was set up in 2004. "While I have spent 12 years working with Logix Communications, a media communications company, the passion for property was too hard to ignore. This goes back to when I was studying, as at the time I used to work part time as a property negotiator.

"Over the years my partner and I kept the property industry as a side business but in 2003, when property branding was relatively new, we were asked to assist with the marketing of multimillion international project. After that we realised there was a niche for this and we designed a business plan, partnered with another company, Exalta - the best computer-generated 3D design company, and formed Duplex.

"Today all four directors, Ryan Mallia, Alfred Camilleri, Pierre Mizzi and myself are very much involved in the development of new ideas for our clients. In essence we are the marketing department for real estate developers - we add value to their real estate".

"We get a lot of experience from working abroad but we also network a lot which is important. We have forged a lot of partnerships with a number of companies such as IPA (www.ipaprojects.com), networked with a lot of international agents, and are in touch with all the top real estate brands."

Duplex has conducted marketing for projects in London, Croatia, Italy and Dubai. The concept of property marketing is the same everywhere, Mr Pillow says, you just need to understand the site potential and how to make it appeal to target audience.

"Working abroad one easily realises that Malta has greater potential. We hope that Yoo's presence here will help attract worldwide attention.

"I was delighted when I heard that Renzo Piano was commissioned for the Valletta project. Of course, there are mixed views on this project, however, people like Mr Piano will help us fine-tune our product offering and also attract international attention. Like Renzo Piano there are other international architects and designers I would love to see come to Malta. This is where I hope Yoo could be involved.

"For example, a hotel by Marcel Wanders in the Grand Harbour would say a lot about the hotel. So Yoo in Malta, I think, would help the country a lot. I do hope we would get a project or two, however, we have already been approached by a developer from another country in the Mediterranean and are currently working on a proposal."

Obviously because of the costs involved, projects have to be of a certain size and, therefore Yoo could only appeal to two or three projects. Apart from a project in the Grand Harbour there are also a couple of hotels currently being re-developed together with other projects like Fort Chambray, which Yoo could do a lot with, he says.