New Technology Could Have Real Estate Customers Seeing Things That Aren’t There

Augmented reality is a new technology that, as the name says, adds things to what is already existing. In the link below, it’s been applied to a real estate development in a way that allows people to see what a finished building will look like before the building exists. Imagine being able to stand on the corner of a street, where a construction site or even old buildings slated for demolition are now, and looking at the finished building with the help of this technology. Augmented reality is in it’s infancy today; but one day you might be able to see not only the building that will be built, but the suite you are thinking about buying!

LINK

Let’s see if commercial projects could market themselves better

This is a duplicate post from David Allison’s blog on RENX.ca, a Canadian Real Estate news website.

It’s always seemed strange to me that the commercial real estate industry doesn’t use the same marketing tools and techniques as the residential project industry to market the office and industrial space they have to sell or lease.

I wonder why, and I want to issue a challenge.

It’s always bugged me, as a marketer, that the B2B market doesn’t (for the most part) seem to realize that every Vice President or President or CEO of a company is a human being first, and a job title second. As human beings, decision-makers are susceptible to the same marketing practices in their business life as they are in their personal life.

The residential real estate project marketing world has had great success (recessionary times aside) with focusing on the needs and wants of prospects, and devising compelling marketing campaigns to attract attention and create conversion. It’s about three key things: understanding your audience, identifying the most compelling stories to tell them about your offering, and deciding on a brand personality to use as the baseline for a marketing effort. A sales funnel is created, and a campaign devised to bring prospects into play, with the sales team standing by to close the deal.

Conversely, commercial offerings have relied on, largely, templated flyers, old-school websites, and uninspired advertising.

I think there is a huge opportunity for a commercial property developer, or for a leasing/sales company focused on the B2B market, to embrace a higher standard of communications. My bet is that even a half-hearted attempt to learn from the residential project industry and apply those lessons to the task at hand would yield better-than-normal results.

Here’s the challenge. (I know this might come off as a bit self-promotional, but it’s really not my intent. Cut me some slack here, ok? Maybe we can all learn something new.)

We create and manage marketing campaigns for residential and resort real estate developers. We know how to do this, and we do it well. I want to find a commercial project, or sales organization, that is interested in applying the techniques we use to sell or lease office or industrial or retail space. You can read about how we work here on our website or read my book, which you can download for free here.

If you are a commercial real estate developer or leasing/sales company, and you want to explore this idea together, I will report on the results on RENX.ca (with more than 100,000 unique visits to this site each month, that can’t be a bad thing), and we will create a case-study together that we can push out to the world via our social media communities, to let everyone know how it worked. We have tens of thousands of people who follow our posts and blogs and twitter feeds. That’s a lot of publicity for your project.

Furthermore, we will rebate 10% of our regular project fees to you, or to the charity of your choice. Remember, in addition to the rebate offer, we will also help you sell/lease your space faster and for more money than you otherwise might.

So, any takers? Operators are standing by, as they say, waiting for your call. Call me at (604) 739-4295, or email me at david@braunallison.com. Let’s see if we can prove this hypothesis, and find new and better ways for commercial real estate developments to reach out to their customer base.

David Ogilvy, the original fact-based marketer

This is a duplicate post from David Allison’s blog on RENX.ca

In the social media- and online marketing-based consumer economy that we are all working in, a lot of people are prattling on about how important it is to be straightforward and honest and transparent, and how vital it is to tell a great story. This is not a new idea. In the 1950s, David Ogilvy was a proponent of what we at our company call Marketing Journalism. Marketing Journalism is messaging based on facts and news. It’s what works today.

Let’s see what we can learn from the master.

I wrote a book for real estate developers about a year ago called Sell The Truth (download a free copy here www.braunallison.com) and at the time felt very smug about having pointed to this new filter for communications that would become de rigeur for our industry. It doesn’t seem like such a big crazy idea now, as I think most developers have realized that yesterday’s hype-and-jive mode of creating messages is no longer valid. Ogilvy was even more prescient, with his emphasis on using straightforward words to tell people stories that illustrate what makes a product better than the other products you could choose instead.

Here’s a very famous headline by Ogilvy, for Rolls Royce:

At 60 miles an hour the loudest noise in this Rolls Royce comes from the electric clock.

Notice how simple it is. There’s no pun with double meanings or outrageous hyperbole. It’s a simple statement, that tells you what the ad is about and what the benefit is. And of all the benefits that could have formed the central premise for this headline, this one (luxurious silence) reinforces the brand position of class and refinement.

Now compare headlines I’ve plucked from Canadian residential real estate developments currently in the market:

Enlightened Living.
Live the Life.
Art and Nature in Perfect Harmony.

Please. Can we all stop using these say-nothing lines? These headlines fail to inform, educate or even inspire. And, as Ogilvy points out, 5 times more people read the headline than any other part of an advertisement. Similar stats would be true for blog posts, Facebook entries or Twitter feeds. But the real lesson here isn’t just about headlines. It’s about overall intent.

People who create advertising and marketing for real estate developments need to remember that the headlines, the pictures, the text, and the overall approach that is most effective today, regardless of what medium is selected, is more like journalism. Consumers are looking for credible information to help them make purchase decisions. No matter how cool or sleek or entertaining or kooky a marketing campaign may seem to the agency you hired and your management team, what really matters is truth. And plenty of it.

Your campaigns could share some research findings. Illuminate a little known fact about your product. Tell the reader why it is better, faster, stronger than competitive offerings. Give a real-life testimonial. (Please don’t fake a testimonial. Nothing is worse or more annoying). Whatever story you decide to tell, make sure it really matters to the consumers you are trying to reach. Don’t waste your time, money or credibility being clever. Be smart instead.

We are not all legendary writers like David Ogilvy. But it would be a great idea for anyone trying to survive in this economy to re-visit his seminal book Ogilvy on Advertising (buy it on Amazon here)

One of my favourite quotes from Ogilvy is “I do not regard advertising as entertainment or an art form, but as a medium of information.” I couldn’t agree more.

ROI of social media [Video]

This video has been doing the rounds on Twitter this week and we felt it was a great follow up to our last post – Some Hard Numbers on Social Networks.