Phase 3 Marketing and Communications

Phase 3 manages media relations, influencer relations, event management, and social media for The Candler Hotel. Since May 2023, the team has garnered national recognition with placements in Conde Nast Traveler, The MICHELIN Guide, MSN, The Knot and more; secured partnerships with top influencers in local and regional drive markets; provided onsite assistance with high-profile events like Discover Atlanta’s official after party following The MICHELIN Guide Atlanta ceremony; and increased social media presence on Instagram, Facebook and LinkedIn.

Along with The Candler Hotel, Phase 3 manages media relations, influencer relations, event management, and social media for By George, a destination restaurant within The Candler Hotel. These efforts generate local, regional and national awareness through impressive press hits and meaningful partnerships.  

Chateau Elan is a winery and resort on 3,500 acres in the foothills of North Georgia with five chef-driven restaurants, a speakeasy and bourbon bar, cafes, and daily tea service, in addition to all the traditional spa amenities and meeting spaces. Following a $25m renovation—and a global pandemic—they were looking to solidify a brand position and strategy that would set them apart from the many other luxury resorts within driving distance. 

Phase 3 facilitated an all-day Brand Vision Workshop, including a rapid-fire SWOT analysis, with the resort’s Executive Team to explore their vision for Chateau Elan, followed by competitive research to inform our positioning strategy. Homing in on food and wine as a source of celebration and renewal, our strategy team proposed the big idea “Fill Your Cup” to underpin the resort’s new brand and messaging strategy.   

To bring the "Fill Your Cup" concept to life, our creative team directed a photoshoot capturing the essence of Chateau Elan, newly positioned as the go-to source for “food, wine, and deliciously good times.”  With custom photography and a fresh messaging platform, we developed a series of ads for Meta, Google, and Sojern, targeting both business and leisure travelers.  

To further refine our ad targeting and messaging, we leveraged Chateau Elan’s current customer lists and layered on in-depth keyword analysis to leverage key terms audiences use and respond to when searching for resort getaways. 

Within seven months, the campaign generated 17,017,527 impressions and over 476,000 website visits, driving revenue of $1,944,032 and exceeding the Travel & Hospitality industry average click-through-rate (CTR) for search campaigns by 484% and for Meta campaigns by 267%. Throughout the seven months, the campaign also exceeded the Travel & Hospitality industry average cost-per-click (CPC) for search campaigns by 72% and for Meta campaigns by 68%.

When Southeastern and property manager Greystar engaged Phase 3 to develop a brand identity for its latest luxury community in Nashville, Tennessee, they knew they wanted it to appeal to downtown dwellers who might be new to Music City and tasked us to name it without leaning on common music tropes. They also wanted to highlight their premium location overlooking the Cumberland River and greenway, painting it as the perfect blend of urban convenience and natural beauty.

The name Soundwater was our nod to both the river and Music City itself, as well as to the feeling of stability and soundness that comes from living in a community with such extraordinarily high standards of service. We paired a modern wordmark with layered photography that contrasted the textured images of the surrounding landscape with modern lifestyle imagery of young professionals working and living in this convenient Nashville location. We tied it all together with a fresh, unexpected color palette and sparkling narrative that set the brand apart from its less elevated competitors. 

Services offered:

• Naming
• Brand Guidelines
• Brand Identity
• Brand Templates
• Brand Expression
• Creative Execution

From creative to print to branded merchandise and apparel, step into the immersive event branding at the DEVUP conference. Phase 3 was thrilled to work with the DEVUP team for the third year in a row to help create an unforgettable event for attendees.

How we did it:

• Creative: Sets the stage with a unique design that amplifies the attendee experience.
• Signage: Guides and informs, ensuring you don't miss a thing.
• Print Materials: Gets you through the door with printed credentials and lanyards
• Fabrication: Transforms spaces, creating immersive environments.
• Branded Merchandise: Wearable branding and take-home souvenirs that keep the memories alive.

• Creative: Sets the stage with a unique design that amplifies the attendee experience.
• Signage: Guides and informs, ensuring you don't miss a thing.
• Print Materials: Gets you through the door with printed credentials and lanyards
• Fabrication: Transforms spaces, creating immersive environments.
• Branded Merchandise: Wearable branding and take-home souvenirs that keep the memories alive.

Late summer is not too early to start thinking about the holidays. In fact, the brainstorming for Dillard’s epic holiday displays started just in the (old Saint) Nick of time. Our Dallas production facility had eight weeks to concept, prototype, produce, pack, palletize, and ship holiday displays for nine luxury brands across 244 Dillard’s Locations.

In their busiest season the Dillard’s team entrusted Phase 3 with solving an enormously complex production puzzle. The project involved flatbed printing, die cutting, magnetizing, laser-cutting, painting, laminating, and mounting displays for nine luxury brands—then packaging each set of displays to ship out to Dillard’s 244 locations.

The result was a masterclass in making holiday magic and making it easy for retail teams to bring that magic to life. Not only were we able to solve a complex shipping puzzle, packaging the displays in easy-to-unbox and assemble kits, we added QR codes and video assembly instructions for retailers on the ground at each location, who were able to unpack and set up the displays in minutes.

Late summer is not too early to start thinking about the holidays. In fact, the brainstorming for Dillard’s epic holiday displays started just in the (old Saint) Nick of time. Our Dallas production facility had eight weeks to concept, prototype, produce, pack, palletize, and ship holiday displays for nine luxury brands across 244 Dillard’s Locations.

A Belgian manufacturer of durable and resilient flooring, including laminates, luxury vinyl plank and tile, and luxury vinyl roll, Beauflor engaged Phase 3 to develop a brand strategy and visual expression for the U.S. market that would enable them to compete with more established big-name brands and their enormous product lines, all of which claimed to be the most beautiful.

We conducted a competitive audit, where we evaluated the marketing claims and product lines of top competitors, followed by in-depth interviews with distributors, retailers, and internal stakeholders. Our research showed that despite the pronounced marketing efforts of competitor brands, when it comes to resilient flooring, consumers care less about brand name and more about style and performance. Distributors and retailers, moreover, were motivated to work with flooring brands that gave them the easiest story to tell.

With distributors and retailers looking for brands that are easy to sell—and consumers looking for floors that are beautiful and easy to live with, the idea “Easy is Beautiful” was born. Offering a curated collection of beautiful, high-quality flooring made for performance, Beauflor built their U.S. brand around ease, offering the durable and resilient flooring portfolio that’s easy to sell, easy to buy, and easy to love.

With “Easy is beautiful” as our throughline, we developed a unique brand expression for Beauflor US, applied across a new website, brand anthem video, product lookbook, social media and collateral suite. We created a Marketing Toolkit for retailers, with an entire year’s worth of marketing content for social media channels, including Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest—so they could easily tell the Beauflor story to consumers in their markets. We also retooled their pitch deck outline to be easier to digest and better focused on Beauflor’s unique value proposition.

Since the launch of their U.S. strategy, Beauflor has been able to compete with big-name consumer brands, using a B2B distributor-based business model. By arming their small and mighty sales force with a high-end toolset and resonant value proposition, the boutique brand continues to punch well above its weight in the U.S. market.

Zochem is the largest dedicated producer of zinc oxide in North America. Used as an additive in most consumer and industrial products, this essential inorganic compound is typically viewed as a commodity, with contracts awarded to the lowest bidder. Zochem engaged Phase 3 to help them challenge the commodity mindset and show the market that not all zinc oxide—and not all zinc oxide manufacturers—are created equal.

Through in-depth interviews with Zochem’s customers across a variety of industries, a common theme emerged: repeatedly, procurement customers described themselves as curious, analytical, high-information buyers whose job is to “make sure”. Make sure the product meets the technical specifications. Make sure the product is delivered on time. Make sure there is enough product (but not too much) warehoused at any given time. The target’s desire to “make sure” pointed us to a strategy Zochem felt uniquely equipped to deliver on: “We sell certainty.”

We built a messaging platform around “the 4 C’s” of certainty: Consistency, Continuity, Communication, and Consultation—positioning Zochem as the one manufacturer who consistently delivers in all four areas.

This strategy led to a robust brand refresh, a new website, and the development of an evergreen content library procurement customers could use to inform their purchasing decisions, including The Purchasing Professional’s Complete Guide to Zinc Oxide. We launched a quarterly newsletter called Pure & Simple (highlighting the superior French Process production method Zochem uses to ensure consistent quality and purity of their product), and a customer appreciation program, with branded merchandise customized for key markets, all of which have amplified Zochem’s presence in the market, leading to more customer touchpoints, conversations, and contracts.

This strategy led to a robust brand refresh, a new website, and the development of an evergreen content library procurement customers could use to inform their purchasing decisions, including The Purchasing Professional’s Complete Guide to Zinc Oxide. We launched a quarterly newsletter called Pure & Simple (highlighting the superior French Process production method Zochem uses to ensure consistent quality and purity of their product), and a customer appreciation program, with branded merchandise customized for key markets, all of which have amplified Zochem’s presence in the market, leading to more customer touchpoints, conversations, and contracts.