Cortland

Cortland is an apartment community brand with over 200 locations nationwide. When they expressed a desire for a spokesperson a la Progressive’s Flo or the Travelocity Gnome, we delivered a very small one with four legs.

Enter: Cortie the Spokespug. Pugs have historically been called “big dogs in small bodies,” meaning you get more than you’d expect—same with Cortland Apartments.

Services
  • Strategy
  • Advertising
  • Video
Industry
  • Multifamily
  • Property
  • Rental & Leasing

Cortland engaged Digital Yalo to lead its brand-focused paid media strategy across priority U.S. markets, with a mandate centered on increasing brand awareness, recall, and consideration rather than lower-funnel conversion activity, via a relationship that spanned 7 successful years. Our role was to design and manage a market-specific, upper-funnel media approach that balances efficiency and premium exposure—leveraging formats like CTV, DOOH, Hulu, and display—to improve brand visibility, message retention, and long-term demand. The strategy emphasizes smarter allocation by market and season, prioritizing quality reach and measurable impact over impression volume.

This campaign of media initiatives included:

  • Connected TV (CTV)
  • Hulu (OTT / Streaming Video)
  • Digital Out-of-Home (DOOH)
  • Programmatic Display
  • Online Video
  • Paid Social
Services
  • Media Strategy
  • Paid Media
  • Optimization & Management

Results

Under Digital Yalo’s leadership, Cortland’s paid media strategy has delivered meaningful brand lift and efficiency gains, even amid budget constraints:

  • 82% lift in consideration among exposed audiences versus control groups
  • 99% lift in intent, with 1 in 5 exposed users likely to schedule a tour within six months in 2025
  • 67% of markets saw reduced spend while 78% delivered improved traffic efficiency and stronger top-of-funnel results