The USA values British marketing creativity and design

Founded in 1993, DS.Emotion is an award-winning Leeds, London and Manchester based full-service creative and strategic agency, which helps define and create compelling brands and marketing campaigns for its clients.

DS.Emotion has developed an outstanding reputation in the UK for property marketing – commercial, residential and mixed-use – for new developments and redevelopments of older properties and districts of major towns and cities.

The company has become a leading exponent of ‘placemaking’ – the analysis and exploration of the soul of a specific location for environmentally-friendly economic development.  DS.Emotion identifies best practice in neighbourhood engagement, lives and breathes each place, and applies insights to develop and implement holistic strategies that turn ordinary places into vibrant destinations.

Examples include the Carnaby district in London, Trinity shopping centre, Leeds, and the Silverstone Formula 1 motor racing circuit, home of the British Grand Prix.

Co-owners, Angus Armitage and Matt Button, recognised an opportunity to bring their distinctive approach to placemaking to the USA.  In early-2018 they started working with Chamber International’s North American business support partner, Mark Ashton and his team at Resolve Gets Results™, to identify opportunities.

Initially the exploration took them to Boston and its surrounding industrial towns in Massachusetts, which are appropriate for intelligent redevelopment and placemaking.  The trail quickly led to Charlotte, North Carolina, America’s 4th fastest growing city, where the initial response has accelerated DS.Emotion’s plans for US market entry.

Angus Armitage says: “Our hunch that North American cities and other locations would offer unlimited potential for intelligent placemaking approaches has proved to be correct.

“What has been a pleasant surprise is the immediate enthusiasm over there for our services, and the demand for our conventional property marketing capabilities as well as placemaking.

“Having looked at the Boston region, which we intend to return to, and now focused on Charlotte, we’re also starting to get high quality enquiries from other parts of the USA and building a network there.  It is taking off at a pace we never envisaged.”

During a three-day initial fact-finding visit to Charlotte at the start of October 2018 Angus was hosted by Michael Teden and Sarah Peeler of Resolve’s US sister company Whitehall Advisory Group and managing director of the Charlotte office of the world’s largest property services and investment company, CBRE, J Compton Newman.

During his visit, Angus met regional and national property development companies, and representatives of the Charlotte City Region’s economic development agencies, all of whom are keenly interested in DS.Emotion’s distinctively British approach to property marketing and placemaking.

Angus says: “The visit exceeded all my expectations. Michael and Sarah are outstanding hosts, and their network is incredibly valuable.  Charlotte a superb place to do business. I have returned with several live opportunities which require immediate action, and I need to get back there again very quickly.”  

Contact us for further details and market enquiries.