by Miranda G. McLeod
Staff Writer
Alayna Kimball has made a major career move.
Kimball, active in Realtor and builder functions here and a past co-chair of the tradeshow, has moved from the Neighborhoods of World Golf Village to the Burdette Ketchum advertising and public relations agency.
The WGV account went with her and she’s now the group account director for its real estate advertising division.
According to Burdette Ketchum’s Director of Public Relations Caryn Best, Kimball’s knowledge and connection with real estate firms, especially WGV, helps define the agency.
“We were handling and getting more and more real estate clients and we had some expertise already, internally in Will Ketchum,” said Best, noting Ketchum worked at advertising firm Morgan & Partners, where Kimball also worked. “But we saw the need to head the (real estate) group. It’s great because (WGV) is such a well-known and well regarded multi-use development. It’s high-profile and it’s an account we can proud of.”
Kimball is working with all three of the firms large real estate accounts which include American Land Ventures and Aslan.
She has also began to venture out of the real estate side of marketing and is working with Bethune-Cookman College.
Kimball had an extensive career around the U.S. prior to joining Burdette Ketchum.
In Colorado, Kimball went skiing on her lunch break while working on accounts and spent time in at the the Tahoe Mountain Resorts In Tahoe, Calif. She’s had dinner with Wendy’s founder Dave Thomas while working on that account and worked in Naples on a master-planned development there.
When Kimball came back to Jacksonville after a 12 year hiatus, she began work with WGV.
But she said, developer sales were going so well that she was marketing herself right out of a job. That’s when she went to the agency side, working for Morgan & Partners before they were bought by another agency.
For her efforts, Kimball has received several awards and recognition including: an EFFIE from the American Marketing Association; Sales and Marketing Council Builder/Developer Member of the Year; “Best Special Event” from the Northeast Florida Association of Realtors; and an ENVY award from the Florida Association of Realtors.
Kimball started in the industry after graduating from the University of Florida and answering a newspaper ad while she was in Naples. It was a fluke, she said.
“Life kinda takes you where you want to go sometimes, without you even knowing it,” she said. “Sometimes, it takes you where you need to go.”
Kimball said she quite pleased with her career and that the changing market keeps her days busy.
“The market is always changing so the things you need to do are always changing also,” she said. “What may have worked five years ago, might not work now.”
But sometimes the smallest things will click off new ideas, she said.
“We incorporate new ideas by just living,” said Kimball.
She said her days do sometimes get stressful, especially with all the deadlines.
“It can be stressful when you take your clients’ work personally, especially in a soft market. When you see clients sales not where they were in 2005, you work hard and are concerned with ways to make it work and get there they want to be be,” she said. “Overall, I’m really happy with where my career has taken me and I’m thrilled to be at Burdette Ketchum. I think I’m going to be here for quite some time.