The Shay

Award winning strategy and design to announce the arrival of The Shay in Washington, DC.

The Shay is located in the heart of Shaw. This creatively driven neighborhood and no risk, no reward client requested Red Thinking stretch our already known sock-knocking creativity and ideas. Red Thinking delivered and in less than one year The Shay was nearly 100% leased. The strategic thinking behind this project won us Best Integrated Marketing campaign by the Great American Living Awards; Awards of Excellence from the Property Management Association for Single Property Marketing Campaign, Signage, and Direct Mail; and the Communicator Awards Award of Excellence for Integrated Promotional Campaign. 

We framed The Shay not just as an apartment building, but a vibrant destination for living with an emphasis on the pioneer. Our goal was to instill that The Shay truly  corners the market; it’s the place to live and be a part of the action in the building(s), and around it.

“Red Thinkings VP of Design, Juan, makes solving complex branding challenges seem as simple as elementary school level arithmetic, while making his clients appear to be Albert Einstein. We are big fans of the entire Red Thinking team and continue to work with them as long term marketing partners.”

Steve Gilbert, Senior Vice President of Marketing and Business Development, Gates Hudson

We made a splash with the “She has arrived” campaign. The SHE Has Arrived banner became a D.C. destination spot for Selfies. The “arrival” point for many. This made The Shay somewhat of an icon for the area.

We carried on this momentum by partnering with neighborhood brands and well known influencers to distribute eye-catching SWAG following the S/He Has Arrived theme to local retail and restaurants and events. We continued the theme to online and print ads – which targeted specific geographic and demographic audiences in and around Washington, D.C.