Not your average players in property development, BOHO is at the forefront of reimagining co-living across Europe. Through their growing portfolio of student accommodation, hotels and adult co-living spaces, their mission is to build inclusive communities where you can work, play and maybe even study! You won't find stuffy dorms or cramped hotel rooms at BOHO. All of their properties are based on thorough research into the location and the needs and wants of those who are going to live there. There's no one size fits all solution for creating accommodation with impact and the same goes for their brand.
Ruffling feathers in the property development market
Brand Discovery
BOHO came to us as a completely new brand looking to create a vision that is bold, exciting, and that would have international appeal. Their company mission was simple and definitely one we could get on board with:
To be straightforward and transparent with a fluffy creative edge. Creating bespoke living solutions for now and for the future.
As with any client, fresh or established, the first step is always a series of brand discovery sessions. These sessions help feed collaboration between the Radiator team and the client, something that we find crucial to any project. For BOHO, a few factors stood out in the brand discovery session that needed to be clearly defined to create their brand successfully.
Firstly, how do we capture the imagination of their audience? For their first development, Scotway House, this meant targeting Gen Z students, not an easy task. Gen Z, those born in the mid-90s – mid-00s, are a generation that has grown up during the peak of the internet age with all the choice and information that it provides. It's not enough to have a great product, in this case, student accommodation, we needed an angle that produced the touch points a Gen Z audience look for but most of all it needed to be authentic. Luckily, BOHO already has the perfect angle embedded into their ethos – building inclusive communities. In a world immersed in smartphones and voice assistants, there's a growing need for a more tangible connection to those around us, something BOHO put at the forefront of their business model. Outwith Gen Z this is an angle every generation can get on board with, not limiting it's impact to the student accommodation branch of the company.
Once we narrowed down the critical messaging touch points, we moved onto defining BOHOs tone of voice. Having a handle on your brand's unique tone of voice not only makes it easier to craft engaging content but helps your key messages impact the right audience. For BOHO, we matched their ethos with a tone that is uplifting, relaxed, inclusive, but still straight talking. Overusing buzzwords and jargon would detract from the authenticity of their core messaging and reduce its impact.
Brand Development
With all our take-homes from the discovery sessions in mind, it was time to craft a brand for BOHO that was memorable for all the right reasons. Branding began with input from Craig Inglis, CEO of Structured House Group – the parent company of BOHO. Craig suggested we include his favourite animal, the flamingo, in the new logo. At first glance, this might seem a bit random, but there's actually sound reasoning behind it that we quickly got on board with.
Flamingos are social animals who live in large groups with no hierarchy, they'll even happily share zoo exhibits with other species of flamingo. They're the animal kingdoms answer to what BOHO is trying to create; inclusive communities without social barriers and that are, importantly, full of colour!
Despite what some people might think branding doesn't start and stop at logo design. A logo on its own has no impact if it's surroundings don't compliment it. A tropical theme, retro typography and bold colours were developed to highlight BOHO's fresh approach to accommodation. The overall look is on trend, bold and importantly speaks to their target audience.
Website Development
After developing a brand with impact for BOHO, it was time to implement for a user-friendly, optimised website. We built the site on our preferred CMS, Umbraco, allowing us to create an entirely bespoke web experience. This solution not only looks and feels fantastic for users but allows the in-house team at BOHO to easily manage and update content independently from Radiator. This is particularly useful for BOHO because of their continually growing portfolio of student accommodation, hotels and co-living spaces.
Out of home
BOHO's first property, Scotway House, allowed us to flex our muscles with out of home advertising. Show cabin wraps and on-street signage were created, incorporating the key messages associated with the brand.
Our branding of BOHO has also had an influence on the interior design of Scotway House, something we're particularly excited about seeing on the launch! This helps to pull the BOHO experience together into one concise package and increases the authenticity of the brand messaging.
BOHO Takes Flight
From the launch of BOHO's new branding and website, Scotway House met its 6-month online reservation target in only 6 weeks! This is a great result not only in terms of sales but because it also allows BOHO more time and flexibility to refine and perfect the experience for the first set of students arriving in September 2019.
One of the most exciting and vital parts of building any company is getting the initial brand and concept clear to the market from the onset. It was always our desire to work with local companies, so it really was a joy to be able to choose a Glasgow based company to help bring our visions to life.
Our vision for our brand was so clear, but we needed a partner who would help us unwrap that and create the identity which would become BOHO.
Everything is in the detail and working alongside the creative team at Radiator enabled us to launch a brand and website which is driving a huge amount of excitement within the property industry. We now have a brand which is not only relevant for the here and now but also forward-thinking and ready for the next generation.
Christine Young, Operations Director at BOHO
Scotway House common area
Scotway House courtyard
Key Skills
- Brand Strategy & Development
- User experience
- Custom E-commerce integration
- Animation