Listen to Vinay Raja on Brand Intelligence
In this episode of Brand Intelligence, host William Tyree sits down with Vinay Raja, Creative & Digital Director at AVJennings, to unpack the award-winning branding campaign behind the Somerford residential community in Melbourne. With a rich history dating back to 1932, AV Jennings has long been a cornerstone of Australia’s property development landscape – but standing out in a crowded market takes more than just legacy.
Vinay shares how his team drew inspiration from Somerford’s equine roots to create a bold, distinctive identity that resonates with modern homebuyers. From navigating local competition to balancing heritage with forward-thinking design, this campaign is a great example of thoughtful community branding. Discover how AV Jennings leveraged storytelling, stakeholder collaboration, and strategic visual elements to win a Brandie Award, and why good branding is just as critical as the product itself.
Tune in for insights on the creative process behind Somerford’s vibrant, horse-inspired branding, and how it sets the community apart in a crowded suburban market. We’ll explore why emotional connection often outweighs logic in real estate branding, and how to strike the right balance between honoring history and designing for the future.
Learn more about AVJennings at https://www.avjennings.com.au/
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Episode Transcript
William Tyree: Welcome to the Brand Intelligence Podcast, a show where we pull back the curtain on some of the world’s smartest brands. I’m William Tyree, and today we’ll speak with Vinay about AV Jennings recent property development projects and the branding surrounding it. This new property development campaign has not only been a business success, but also won AV Jennings a Brandie Award for best brand campaign in the property development category.
Vanay is the creative and digital director of AV Jennings. Vanay, welcome.
Vinay Raja: Thank you. Thank you.
William Tyree: Yeah, it’s great to have you. Listen, before we dive in , we like to ask every guest to give us a theme song. So imagine you’re walking out on stage, you’re about to give a keynote address, what would your song be and why?
Vinay Raja: As cheesy as it sounds, I absolutely would love the Star Wars team.
William Tyree: I love it. I love it. Tell me why.
Vinay Raja: I think of what you call, like being a graphic designer and, I was interested in CGI and animation. That was kind of like my foundation and the root cause is Star Wars. I absolutely loved the movie when I watched it first time as a child, and the music just stayed with me, and that was probably my first exposure to this entire new world of cinema, which stayed with me.
And yeah, absolutely loved the theme ever since.
William Tyree: Wow, that’s really cool. I also love it. That sounds good. Alright, listen, let’s start by learning more about AV Jennings. What is AV Jennings and who does it help?
Vinay Raja: So AV Jennings, is a community developer . It has been around since 1932. They’re probably one of the first companies in Australia who have been into home builders. So that’s how they were known. And over the years they built a good chunk of Australia probably, or good chunk of the Great Australian dream , which is on a block of land and a beautiful home to live in it. And they have been around for, yeah, I think this is our 93rd year.
William Tyree: Wow.That’s some pretty good history there. That’s amazing.
Vinay Raja: Yeah. so it was, started by Albert Victor Jennings, who had this dream of basically making homes accessible for everyday Australians. And that philosophy continued. We’ve started off as builders. It was in various capacities over the years, but right now, as of the last 10, 15 years, AV Jennings is purely focusing on building communities, as well as what we call turnkey homes. Which is actually a very common theory in the US if I’m not wrong, but here in Australia, people get to choose what kind of form they want and then customize it to the extent they want. So the entire house is completely done, ready to go.
All you have to do is just get the keys and move in.
William Tyree: Easy peasy. Very nice. Well, Listen you’ve got some great marketing. You won a Brandy Award. Can you tell us a little bit about the summer for Project and what the goals were for you and the company?
Vinay Raja: Yeah, absolutely. So Summerford, is a community in Melbourne, Australia, and it’s located in the southeast of Melbourne. So that’s how community developments work, right? So they would basically take a small pocket of land. In this case it was a stable, that was raising horses. Particularly for polo and some thoroughbred horses as well. And that was the origin of the name as well. and this dates back, I think 60, 70 years. so AV Jennings acquired the land and we started planning the redevelopment of this particular piece of land. And of course, the first thing that we do is kind of like map out what exactly do we wanna build based on the, marketing research as to what type of demographics would be living there and what is the socioeconomic status and who are the type of bias that we would be approaching, or we would be selling the homes to. So on and so forth. So with all that information, basically we started thinking about the entire branding of the community. It was probably a few years ago. So these projects do take a few years in the making, right? Because when you’re talking about developing, I don’t know, a couple of hectares of land, the town planning, the approvals, the council involvement, there’s just several layers involved that you have to, get on board before something comes to market. So I think that was the start. And then, yeah, I think we finally went live probably last year. And then yeah, it’s been doing pretty well since then.
Listen to the full episode to see even more great conversation between William Tyree and Vinay Raja…
