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May 14, 2010· scvtalk.com · WordPress (SCVTalk 3.0) · Wayback capture

Awesometown Reaches Cult Status

By Jeff — Jeff Wilson

Wow. Just wow.

Newhall Land is showing off entries residents have made for their Awesometown is Awesome campaign. Particularly striking is this video:

However you feel about Newhall Land, you have to hand it to them for the brilliant Awesometown campaign. Consider where Newhall Land was at just a year ago: in bankruptcy court with a Delaware judge deciding which part of the company’s vast holdings ought to be chopped up and sold off to pay creditors. The company was laying off people left and right, closing down its downtown Valencia HQ, and everyone was wondering how a farming company cum suburban developer was going to survive the Great Recession and BK.

But they did. And they’ve re-invented themselves with this silly but very effective Awesometown campaign by using new media tools like Facebook and Twitter. People are actually talking about Valencia as an idea again.

Is Awesometown working, or is it all sizzle and no steak? Time will tell. The chief purpose of Awesometown is to sell homes and to that end, they’re holding a big sale-a-bration this weekend, encouraging potential buyers to take advantage of lucrative tax credits.

Comments (12)

  1. Timothy MyersMay 15, 2010 at 8:33 am
    It is extremely goofy and lame, but it has got people talking and that is what a marketing campaign is supposed to do.
  2. Samuel AdamsMay 15, 2010 at 12:45 pm
    Who would have thought?
  3. spineflower2May 15, 2010 at 1:51 pm
    Yeah, but they need to do more than just talk about Valencia. Hell, the heroin story has them talking about it, but is that a good thing? Besides, does the Facebook generation even know what a turntable is for?
  4. Pauline HarteMay 15, 2010 at 2:07 pm
    I like the cats.
  5. GangFangMay 15, 2010 at 2:32 pm
    I’ve been getting email, phone call, and conversational mentions about Awesometown. Most peoples reaction seems to be “Are they serious? That’s pretty lame.” But it has them wondering, which unintended or not – garners attention. I cringe when I see ‘em now.
  6. MikeMay 15, 2010 at 3:24 pm
    I’m assuming this is a freelancer, not an officially sanctioned awesometown ad. I think it’s just some guy having fun. Odd that he mentions a KFC in San Bernardino.
  7. drive66May 16, 2010 at 9:09 am
    That was, well…AWESOME!
  8. SCV RezMay 16, 2010 at 2:26 pm
    Even Valencia itself has to cringe a bit at this. Eating corn dogs at the mall…??? Beleive it or not, Valencia has some things going for it even beyond that. But he is correct…fresher than Stevenson Ranch. People forget now that SR was the poor man’s Valencia years ago, people bought there mainly just cause homes were cheaper…
  9. SusanMay 17, 2010 at 7:22 am
    Forget Awesometown. Radsville is where it’s at.
  10. MikeMay 17, 2010 at 7:25 am
    Does that make Canyon Country Yobbosville?
  11. JulieMay 17, 2010 at 11:21 am
    Creative but lame. Valencia is awesome not because of the mall or a theme park because of the low crime rate, the friendly residents and neighborhoods, cleanliness, convenience, awesome schools, etc. This video is more of an embarrassment than anything else.
  12. mikeMay 17, 2010 at 11:35 am
    psst…. he’s making fun of Valencia.

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