Lakewood Ranch

When your community is the size of two Manhattans, it’s hard to set context and tell a story that consumers can understand.  The challenge is giving consumers enough information to get excited, but not so much that they get overwhelmed.  Lakewood uses the Xplorer maps to do that - showing what’s around, helping choose villages, and even showcasing key points of interest that help folks decide where to live.  And it’s helping them drive the traffic and interest that makes them the #1 MPC in the US.

How do you simplify 30,000 acres and 20+ villages into something coherent and easy to understand for consumers?

Lakewood’s greatest strength is its variety.  Price points from under $200k to multi-millions.  Townhomes and apartments to actual estates.  Living on a golf course or lake to the middle of a bustling town center.  Active adult to young family.  There’s something for everyone.

The problem is telling that story.  How do you simplify that information and give people a funnel that allows them to discover and explore everything Lakewood has to offer, without feeling overwhelmed?  And how do you do that in an innovative, technology-driven way?

Cecilian Partners worked closely with the Lakewood Ranch marketing team to understand how customers explore today.  What questions do prospective home buyers ask today?  Where do they get confused?  What amenities and features are differentiating and need to be emphasized?  How was Lakewood "talking" to these people today?

Once both teams understood the must haves, the work began on ideating and iterating a creative solution, centered on maps.  Creating a sense of place and context.  Simplifying the process of drilling down to villages.  Providing easy visibility to critical points of interest.  And ultimately bringing that to prospects in a fast, responsive, easy to use product.

The LWR Xplorer map is a living, breathing, evolving solution, constantly being improved and evolved as we learn more about how customers and sales teams are actually using it.

The first phase was a fully integrated, one-stop-shop map that did everything.   With the click of a button, customers could see regional maps, village maps, points of interest, and even drive times.

As we observed the data and sought out feedback, we found that the experience actually needed to be simplified.  Customers were looking for a map in the context of specific needs - understanding the area, narrowing down communities, exploring each village - that required unique, tailored maps.  Today, the maps at Lakewood Ranch exist as integrated parts of the overall journey through the website, helping enrich and simplify the experience of finding information and falling in love with the community.