It’s not all about awards but this got me thinking….
Check out every marketing award ceremony in the UK. The Drum Awards, the Effy Awards, D&AD Pencil, Campaign Awards, Marketing Week Awards. Now filter by industry and look for ‘Property’ or ‘Real Estate’ … it doesn’t feature, does it?
You’d be forgiven for thinking it would be nestled somewhere between 'Automotive' & 'Travel'…or any of the other 30 or so industry categories. But it doesn't.
So, it does beg the question, is property marketing, proper marketing?
I'd argue so, yes. It's the oil of the biggest non-financial asset class in the UK and I'd argue that a lot of the work is award worthy. Property is the 2nd biggest employer in the world and if there’s ever a category that needs focus, it’s the marketing behind the biggest asset that anyone is ever going to purchase in their lifetime.
Funnily enough, apart from Finance, Property is probably one of the most complex products to market. It involves floor plans, floor plates, site plans, architectural plans, legal frameworks, movie-level 3D rendering, awesome drone footage, consumer standards and more. It involves complex consumer decision making that as Rory Sutherland – Executive Chairman of Ogilvy (one of the largest advertising agencies in the world) said in his own words “….Ultimately, when you’re looking to buy a house, if it doesn’t clinch it for you emotionally, you can’t buy it.”
So why doesn’t it feature?
Likely 4 reasons -
1- There's no TV or sexy national advertising campaigns. That’s a fair point of view and will be unlikely to change. Most campaigns are highly regionalised to a town or postcode, or highly targeted to a very specific consumer group.
2- Property is ‘WIGIG’ (When it’s gone, it’s gone). By its very nature, each campaign is short lived as it focusses on one home or one development which once it's sold, it's sold. Therefore, budgets and campaigns will be smaller and highly focussed on ‘sales’ rather than ‘brand.’
3- Much of the work isn’t good enough to compete with FMCG / Auto / Finance etc. It’s a cruel fact and certainly not true across the whole industry. But some of it is cr*p. Perhaps that gives property marketing a bad name…
4- It's mis-understood. I remember talking to an old colleague from a previous business outside of property and when I told them I worked in property marketing, they assumed I went around taking photos and drawing floor plans. Granted, that's a big part of the listing process but there's a lot more to property marketing than pics & plans.
But maybe these are all excuses.
After all, as the digital landscape takes over and ads become increasingly targeted, the idea of a mass marketing campaign becomes more and more obsolete.
I think there’s three opportunities for the property marketing community going forward, and we take all three objectives to heart at DCTR -
1) Continue to create bigger & better work that gets noticed. Raise the standard and push creative thinking and execution that’s seen as ‘worthy’ of a Cannes Lions. Ok, bold ambition but why not!
2) Raise the property marketing profile amongst the wider marketing community. We’re in a uniquely awesome industry that covers so many aspects from 3D visualisation 'that even Pixar would be proud of' to beautiful hoarding that 'rivals even the best billboards'. Some work is sh*t hot, so show it off!
3) Be proud and work hard to attract the brightest and the best in marketing, design, motion graphics, 3D and digital. There’s no reason why a marketing graduate should wish to market bog roll at Kimberley-Clark (no offence) over a luxury penthouse, but at the moment, sadly most do.
Let’s work hard to create an industry we can all be proud of and I'll see you in Cannes 🤩
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