[Beware: This post is a bit of a rambler – I’m thinking about several issues here that I will flesh out later.]
Does consumer-facing brand advertising – print or online – work in real estate?
Rarely, I think.
But I don’t put the blame on the medium; I put it on the messengers. Think about it: How many truly great real estate brand ads have you seen? Ads that provoke, inspire, connect with you in a way that matters?
Corcoran did it. Better Homes and Gardens does it. In my market, Alan Pinel has come close.
But these are exceptions.
So when I hear people in real estate dismiss brand advertising out of hand I suggest they stop and explore the matter. Because drawing this conclusion is a bit like saying hamburgers aren’t any good when all you’ve ever eaten is Burger King.
This is not to say that things could not be helped from the publisher side of the equation, particularly online. While most real estate brand ads on sites like Realtor.com, Zillow and others are pretty poor, it is also true that the formats are tired.
Leaderboard, skyscraper, banner … boring. Can’t we do better?
John Battelle, CEO of Federated Media, an ad network that connects advertisers with high-quality “conversational” publishers, offered one possibility earlier this week.
Federated Media introduced something it’s calling the “Ad Stamp,” (see a screencast and examples here) a coordinated brand display from one advertiser. The problem the Ad Stamp tries to solve is explained by Battelle thusly:
“…the relegation of marketing impressions to increasingly competing “third rails” on the sides and tops of sites has created a “Nascar effect” where more than five – if not 15 – messages blink numbly and disparately at their subjects. This is not a quality environment for readers or brand marketers, and it’s a premium publisher’s job to create a quality environment for both.”
The advertiser’s burden here is to deliver creative that makes something like this sing, to connect – or, better here online, engage — the viewer in a conversation. And what category is more conversational than real estate?
I guess what I’m getting to here is a challenge to some of the talk about real estate advertising that is beginning to congeal into conventional wisdom. Print is not pointless – if you do it well. Online display advertising is not just gravy thrown on top of an enhanced listings buy – if publishers and advertisers get creative.
What do you think? Have you seen any good real estate brand ads lately? If so, link to them in the comments.
[Disclosure: Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate is a 1000watt Consulting client.]
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Finding a great, or even good, real estate ad is exceedingly difficult. Even with agents who espouse doing things in a fresh, innovative way seem to turn, time and time again to the same, cheesy, tired old methods that’ve been used since the Mesozoic Era. They use cliched images, and the same boring website templates that’re provided by their broker. Using tried and true methods is geeat, but use them in a new way.
And I like Burger King. I like it my way.
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by The Corcoran Group and Jon Sterling. Jon Sterling said: Real estate brand advertising and the Burger King Problem: [Beware: This post is a bit of a rambler – I’m thinki.. http://bit.ly/dBwKC [...]
Well said Brian!
This is always an interesting subject.
I believe effective Brand Ads for national or regional companies are rare. I’ve seen some well done ads over the years, can’t recall exactly who or where or what, I know there’s been a few.
The reason I think they are rare is because owner/leadership knows that “promise or promises” aren’t in reality, not consistently deliverable. Therefore, you can’t get too creative or make a powerful, evocative point if it can’t be delivered in the field.
Consumers are painfully aware of the disconnect between fancy talk and delivered reality.
Why is this? IMO.
Because promises are delivered at the whim, mood and ability of individual independent contractors. This isn’t the case in other industries, services or products. In these cases the promise is more likely to be delivered because the consumer experience is tightly controlled. Burger King tastes the same all over the country, Lexus is the same, Apple, etc. In real estate, not so much.
When done reasonably well, I think brand advertising in real estate, has an impact on “awareness”, but it’s success is dependent upon the agent making contact, following up, following through, presenting effectively, and delivering.
I also observe that RE giants have in-house marketing departments, this usually means less talent and their messages seem too safe or too out of touch, which make them lame.
My short answer (finally). I think brand Ads are important and necessary, but it doesn’t matter how WOW the ads are, if your delivery (agents) aren’t WOW, then you’re going nowhere and your money is wasted.
Honestly how could anyone make real estate powerful and compelling to anyone that is not already looking to sell their house. I feel like most advertising that is not internet based has lost its edge because all of my clients are online and most of them find me from there anyway. I will keep focusing on the internet, because that works for me more than print.
-Tyler
Undoubtedly, the internet makes it easier to reach the masses more efficiently and cost effectively, however I struggle sometimes balancing the time i spend building my online presence and working on the real estate fundamentals. Real estate is a face to face business and there’s no better advertising than knocking on doors and introducing yourself to the neighbors. Inefficient and time consuming, yes, but it’s free and if you can deal with the funny looks and rejections, then it could be a very worthwhile activity for agents.
if branding is the goal, then there’s no better way to build a brand that provokes, inspires, and connects with the customer than by knocking on doors–(the alternative, of course, is to mail out the same stale-looking postcards that your office designs for ALL their 154 agents)
The main reason we see brand advertising today
is for the big brokers to try and persuade their
agents to stay under their control and cost
structure rather than joining a more efficient
and forward looking team and brand themselves.
The public is not impressed with a big name
and once the agents escape the fear of leaving
a no longer needed crutch it will be over. Like
KB said it is the agent that must deliver the
WOW. And then they will be the brand…..
[...] 1000watt blog dives into the problems with real estate advertising: “Does consumer-facing brand advertising – print or online – work in real estate? Rarely, [...]
Here’s what I think ‘branding’ is all about.
It’s an emotional attachment.
And we can have this attachment with anything – people, products, ideas, whatever.
We all have our own ‘brand’, because people see us (or our work) and form an opinion immediately. We are hard-wired that way. We need to know how new people and things fit into our universe. It keeps us sane.
This ‘brand’ gets modified as people learn more about us and our work.
So a real estate brokerage can have a brand, and an individual agent has their own brand too.
OK, here’s where it gets interesting. Advertising doesn’t build brands, it just builds awareness. We have all been trained to ignore it.
PR builds a brand, that emotional connection. Glenn Kelman knows this. And that’s why the new social media tools are so important.
Brian and Marc at 1000Watt can help you establish that emotional connection to build a brand. They get it.
Best,
Bert
Dood!
Wake up!
You obviously wore this post before you saw the post:
“Like a Man-Lamb tethered to the Space Shuttle floating miles above the competition”
Plus, don’t forget about the killer balloons and yellow jackets.
LOL!
RM
Finding a great, or even good, real estate ad is exceedingly difficult. Even with agents who espouse doing things in a fresh, innovative way seem to turn, time and time again to the same, cheesy, tired old methods that’ve been used since the Mesozoic Era. They use cliched images, and the same boring website templates that’re provided by their broker. Using tried and true methods is geeat, but use them in a new way.
And I like Burger King. I like it my way.
The right advertising, well thought out and implemented is valuable.
Aloha,
Keahi
I like your blog, you’ve posted some interesting articles. I’m always on the look out for new or unusual news stories. Please contact me via my IM Newsdesk blog (http://IMNeswdesk.com) if you come across something news worthy. Thanks.