Real estate is more than property, it’s Real People.
Internally, we called the campaign “Real People.” Our goal was to show Homeseekers more of what we stand for at REW: people over property and real life connections over simply real estate. We enlisted the help of a real family from the Fraser Valley, as well as a couple of REW employees, to be the faces of the campaign. The plan was to take traditional listing photos and insert life into them – the kind of silly, quirky, even sweet moments of our lives that happen in homes every day.
The next step was making sure the campaign was seen by Homeseekers across BC. We started with a tried and tested placement for real estate advertising: city buses. With REW’s bold yellow and black brand colours in full display, the “Real People” campaign appeared on hundreds of buses across the Lower Mainland. Digital screens in SkyTrain stations were next, to ensure that commuters were exposed to our messaging in multiple places along their journeys.
Anyone watching playoff hockey in the spring was also likely to see our TV ads on the Rogers network. Plus the campaign appeared on digital out-of-home screens across the region, as well as online across favourite websites like Vancouver is Awesome and BIV and on social media from Instagram to YouTube to Reddit.
What this means for agents.
In marketing terms, the goal of this campaign was to increase the number of Homeseekers coming to REW.ca, as well as increase awareness and understanding of the REW brand. So did we succeed? I’m incredibly pleased to say we did. Not only did traffic to REW.ca increase year-on-year, it did so during a particularly difficult market. We all know that buyers have been highly cautious this year, sitting on the sidelines to wait out trade wars and interest rate changes. Even with this caution, more Homeseekers than ever before have been visiting our site, viewing listings, perusing agent bios and reading homebuying guides – all so that they’re ready to make a move when the time is right.
On top of this record traffic, we also ran an independent survey to understand just how aware people in BC are of the REW brand. We’ve been doing this quarterly for some time now and just after the campaign ran, we saw a significant increase in unaided awareness of REW. That means more people than ever before see our logo or name and understand that REW is where you go when you need to find a home.
So what does this mean for our agent, broker and developer partners? The short answer is more access to Homeseekers. That means more people viewing your listings or project hubs, more people exploring your profiles or seeing your personal marketing, and more buyers looking for agents or mortgage broker assistance. There is no better time to partner with REW as a real estate professional.
This investment in the REW brand is just the beginning. We have big plans to run regular advertising campaigns, further develop our content production and bring more and more Homeseekers to the site from across Canada. Plus we’re hard at work improving our products for our partners, from Marquee, Apex and Connect for agents, to Project Hub and Pulse for developers.
If you’re an agent and not yet a One member, find out about the benefits of membership today.
