One company is taking note of an innovative marketing strategy seen in Paris and Milan.

Lincoln Property Company has ventured into a new marketing strategy with an online Look Book, akin to a fashion house’s fabled Bible of its hottest design trends.

The digital content aims to showcase Lincoln Property Company (LPC) to investors and attract prospective residents by highlighting the national apartment owner/manager’s community designs and apartment home décor. “This is the first standout piece that we’ve done that really focuses on the assets and apartments themselves… a marketing push to promote communities,” says LPC Vice President of Marketing and Communications Sheri Killingsworth. The organization manages more than 170,000 units in 27 states and the District of Columbia.

According to the Look Book webpage, the content highlights 10 multifamily communities and offers “a visual collection of apartment design trends unique to different U.S. markets” and “a few tips for renters on how to incorporate these design trends into their own apartment homes.”

The new digital content, which is part of a larger, overarching marketing strategy, launched in May in time for the busy rental season.

The Look Book is the result of about five months of collaboration between LPC’s corporate marketing, design and creative teams, and LeaseLab, a San Diego-based digital marketing and creative services firm. The teams worked together mainly via email and conference calls.

The creative process started with brainstorming sessions to find ways to show off the LPC brand, says Killingsworth. The team settled on the Look Book which would result in something that is “visually stimulating that people would enjoy looking at.”

The biggest challenge in the creative process was selecting the communities to be included in the Look Book, according to Killingsworth. LPC manages more than 450 communities, some with similar names, and she wanted to feature a variety of styles and designs.

Another hurdle was ensuring all photographs were up to date. Some of the selected communities had recently been remodeled, so it was imperative to have the latest photos.

Employees at the communities featured in the Look Book were excited about their selection and pushed the digital content on their social medial channels, says Killingsworth. Owners of the selected properties were also enthusiastic; different management companies received “great feedback,” she says. The Look Book communities saw a spike in traffic to the listings on the LPC app and the company website has witnessed increased traffic.

The hard data is not yet in, however. Google Analytics page-view data and Facebook engagement reveal that the Look Book has garnered attention, but it is too early to measure precisely the effectiveness of the new digital content. That said, the enthusiasm, excitement and increased web traffic certainly are early indicators of success.

Rachel F. Goldberg is a freelance writer.