Like other life plan communities, Beatitudes Campus, Phoenix, AZ, markets the benefits of its community using a variety of familiar strategies, but this LeadingAge member also makes sure to involve the real experts on living there: current residents.

Among the most popular marketing events involving current residents is “Music & Wine,” a concert series that brings prospects to campus and encourages community mingling in a relaxed setting.

“We decided to advertise a free musical experience to the general public and invite residents to come too, in hopes [they would] interact with the guests on an informal basis to hear about the Beatitudes,” says Jonathan Gibbs, Beatitudes’ director, future resident engagement, of the concept that was launched in spring 2023.

Music & Wine is held one Friday a month from 6:30 – 8 p.m. Gibbs welcomes the guests and gives a very brief “elevator speech” in which he encourages the visitors to meet the residents in the room and ask questions about living at Beatitudes, before introducing the entertainment. Guests are served wine and usually a snack. Attendees, who usually number between 100 and 150 per performance, according to Gibbs, usually include 20-30 prospective residents.

Performers have included a father/daughter guitar and fiddle duo, a virtuoso violinist and piano duo, a harpist, an Elton John tribute show, a local community choir, and a group of Arizona State University music and theater professors who perform together as the “Flyin’ Winds.” One night, the latter group provided an unexpected bonus, Gibbs says, when its leader spontaneously told the audience about the positive experience she and her family had when her late mother lived at Beatitudes.

“Our residents are excited to get free, first-class entertainment, and our guests are getting to experience a slice of campus life in an engaging, non-salesy way,” Gibbs explains; while promotions for the events, through ads on local radio and in newspapers, ask guests to RSVPs and fill out information cards, the Music & Wine marketing message is more subdued than at other events.

Beatitudes has been able to schedule a good number of follow-up tours and has gained depositors as a result of these experiences.

Gibbs has integrated residents into other marketing initiatives, including “lunch and learns,” offering presentations about the community, lifestyle, and levels of care, and a recent panel event pairing a realtor and a downsizing expert who shared market trends and advice on preparing a house for sale, followed by a discussion with residents who had all been through the process, and a Q&A.

Open houses, with independent living model apartments on display, are Beatitudes’ latest resident-inclusive function. “Resident ambassadors will be available along the way to help direct and welcome prospects,” Gibbs explains. “And then in the actual apartments will be the residency counselors that are going to talk to them about the nuts and bolts of the apartments and prices.”

Gibbs says he’s always impressed with how engaging current residents are with prospects. “At Music & Wine, when I give my little speech, I always say, ‘You’re going to be sitting next to residents that live here, and you can ask them anything you want.’ I always make the joke that I’m not afraid of anything they’re going to tell you. Because I know that whatever they say, in the end, they’re going to tell you they are happy living here.”

Photo: A Music & Wine performance featuring Flyin’ Winds, a group from Arizona State University. Photo courtesy of Beatitudes Campus.

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