Brookfield Properties

Activating Iconic Commercial Real Estate Destinations

For the past decade, The Brand Guild has partnered with Brookfield Properties to drive awareness, engagement, and foot traffic to its most high-profile developments, including The Yards in Washington, D.C. and Brookfield Place New York. With a strategic mix of events, public relations, digital marketing, influencer engagement, and creative, we’ve positioned Brookfield’s neighborhoods as must-visit destinations, while solidifying Brookfield’s reputation as a leading commercial real estate owner and developer.

The Challenge

For The Yards, Brookfield Properties faced a unique challenge: how do you generate buzz, excitement, and community engagement for a place before it exists? As they developed a neighborhood on the Washington waterfront from scratch, Brookfield Properties needed a strategic partner to craft a compelling vision that would bring empty spaces to life and tell the story of the neighborhood’s future to consumers, media, and stakeholders. Beyond just launching a development, the goal was to ensure The Yards consistently remained vibrant, relevant, and continually evolving, reinforcing Brookfield’s leadership in innovative placemaking and sustainable urban development.

Our Strategy

Highlights

Create and execute annual, signature events ranging from influencer events to large scale, multi-day events attracting thousands to the neighborhood, driving retail sales and restaurant traffic.
Ongoing events and press execution for The Yards, totaling 4 billion media impressions and 200+ events, from groundbreakings to major cultural events.
Support of Brookfield’s sustainability initiatives including their corporate zero emissions announcement, amplifying the company’s leadership in sustainable development.
Development and execution of high-profile events at Brookfield Place New York, including their 3-month Portside Summer activation and annual month-long Santa at BFPL activation
Combined organic and paid influencer content strategy to drive event attendance
Paid social and OOH campaigns that have driven more than 60% of total attendees to key events
Development of targeted creative campaigns and websites, including the BFPL Portside activation site.

Our Strategy

To position The Yards as a must-visit cultural hub, we developed an integrated strategy that combined public relations, experiential events, digital storytelling and influencer marketing. At The Yards, we began engagement before groundbreaking—transforming an asphalt parking lot into a buzzworthy destination with a series of out-of-the box events, from Splash Yards–a pool party for adults that drew 5,000 attendees, to Laser Cat, a massive art installation and music festival. Today, we continue to curate signature annual events, collaborating with retailers to create large-scale, community-driven activations that bring energy to the neighborhood, foster a sense of place, and drive repeat visits.

By blending hyper-local storytelling with national media exposure, we not only increased foot traffic but also cemented Brookfield Properties’ reputation as a leader in placemaking, shaping vibrant urban spaces that attract both locals and visitors.