Realestate.com.au CMO shares what's behind the latest brand campaign

The CMO of realestate.com.au says the property listing directory is taking serious leaps and bounds in its campaign and innovation strategies as part of its effort to boost customer engagement and stay ahead of its competitors.

In the launch of its new brand platform, the group has rolled out a new campaign in conjunction with BWM Dentus, Finch and Mindshare celebrating the special moments when Australians find their ‘place’.

“We wanted a brand platform that carried all the experiences you can have at realestate.com.au in a single idea, because whether you’re buying, selling or renting a house, it is a highly emotionally charged experienced – but it’s also a logistical, rational choice too,” REA Group CMO, Kieran Cooney, told CMO. “So as a brand platform we wanted to unify both the emotional and rational elements.

"We felt 'this is the place’ is the phrase so many of us have uttered in that moment when we’ve found the perfect home after months of looking.”

In order to stand out and differentiate from its competitors, Cooney said the campaign observes and celebrates both pinnacle emotional and rational moments of the property hunt, buy and sell process, but also how realestate.com.au is part of ensuring those experiences are enjoyable at every touchpoint

 “Our brand needs to work on multiple levels – resonating with the emotion of buying and selling property, while also being able to be very direct and clear about the rational aspects,” he said. “It demonstrates clearly some of the many functional elements people do such as renovating, decorating, bringing people to inspect, sell or buy – while aiming to really strike an emotional chord that resonates with the wider audience."

Cooney said the site now more than one million people coming to its site or app every day to support their property journey, claiming to be double its competitor.

Adding more fuel to their competitive fire, earlier this year REA Group debuted a new virtual reality app allowing property hunters to take a digital walk through their potential new home.

The realestate.com.au virtual reality app first launched in November 2016 and delivers tours of houses and estates for sale inside Google's Daydream View VR headset. Users can inspect properties in minutes rather than having to trek across town to do in-person viewings.

According to Coooney, this is one of many digital initiatives being deployed by the online property site to cater to shifting consumer demands.

“We have an innovation lab in Melbourne and the VR project involves being able to experience a property and actually walk through if you can’t physically inspect the property, or you can look at it from the point of view of renovating and decorating,” Cooney explained.

“You can visualise in VR what would happen if you removed a wall or moved a couch that’s ongoing – and it’s not like we launched an app and we’re done with it, we’re continuing to refine it and evolve it- so it’s very exciting, emerging technology.”

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