XCITY The Idol · Real estate
Launching a residential tower as a lifestyle, from website to cinema ad
The website, ad campaigns, print and video for the launch of The Idol, a 16-floor residential tower by XCITY Towers in Timișoara.
What I delivered
- A website that lets you explore the tower floor by floor
- Ad campaigns for three audiences: investors, students & diaspora
- One visual language from Instagram to the airport and the cinema screen
Role & timeline
- Role
- Web Designer & Developer, Visual Designer
- Client
- XCITY Towers by Wallberg · Real estate
- Live site
- xcitytheidol.ro (opens in a new tab)
Methods
Overview
Selling a way of living, not square metres
The Idol is the newest tower in the XCITY Towers neighbourhood in Timișoara: 16 floors, 28 apartment types (what XCITY calls the most varied mix in a single Romanian building) and a glass pool suspended 30 metres up.
Most residential launches look the same: renders, floor plans and a price per square metre. XCITY wanted The Idol to feel different, and to reach very different buyers, from young professionals and families to investors and Romanians living abroad.
My goal
Turn the building's idea, "Life as a manifesto. One leading role: you.", into a website and a campaign that each buyer can see themselves in.
Website
The building as a stage
I designed and built the site as a journey up the tower. The opening is bold and theatrical. Then an interactive explorer takes you from the lobby to the 16th floor, showing what's on each level as you climb.
Interaction
"Tell us who you are"
28 apartment types is a lot to choose from. Instead of a long filter, I designed a short "casting": three questions about who you are and how you live, followed by the types that suit you. You make the final choice with the sales team, but you arrive with a shortlist.
- 01
CastingThree quick questions, starting with "Who are you at this moment in your life?": freelancer, young couple, family, investor or entrepreneur.
- 02
Community (concept)Designed for resident stories by floor: the family in a duplex, the couple on the 11th, the architect in the penthouse. Placeholder content until the first residents are filmed.
- 03
NeighbourhoodAn aerial map of the neighbourhood with the central park, the mall and the towers, so buyers see what's around them.
Performance campaigns
One building, three very different buyers
Each audience needed its own reason to care, so I designed a separate set of ads for each one:
Investors & diaspora
Return on investment, spelled out: annual yield, rent versus mortgage, and a bank deposit compared with an apartment. Clean charts, black and white, with the tower as the hero.
Students & parents
"Studying in Timișoara?" and "University starts at home": what a monthly rent would cost against a mortgage payment, with student offers.
Brand campaign
"Switch to a life you own"
The brand campaign was built around the building's signature feature, which XCITY presents as the first suspended glass pool in a Romanian residential project. I designed it once and adapted it to every format the media plan needed: story, feed, square and landscape, plus Google Display.
For the monthly offer, a calmer set: finished 3-room apartments, real interiors, the price up front.
Print & out-of-home
From the airport to the client's mailbox
The same story carried over to print: a large-format airport banner and a personal letter to prospective buyers.
Video
On the big screen, and in the feed
I edited the launch videos too: a 30-second cinema ad, short vertical cuts for stories and reels, and an animated chart of how apartment prices in the neighbourhood have grown, for the investor campaign.
Social
A neighbourhood, not just a building
Between campaigns, the social posts showed life in the neighbourhood: a night market, a Halloween mystery in the park, morning yoga in the courtyard. They give future residents a reason to picture themselves there.