The New Real Deal

So the company approached YouTube about developing a more effective portal for real estate video. Last May, the company launched a branded, highly integrated corporate channel on YouTube that has become one major focal point of its social initiative. Users can go to Coldwell Banker's “On Location” channel for a wealth of information. But the heart of the channel is a mapping mashup developed in partnership with YouTube and its parent Google.

“On Location” locates where users are connecting from (using IP lookup) or goes to a map based on a Zip Code they input. It draws a 25-mile radius on that map and pinpoints videos in that area bucketed into categories: home listings, agent profiles, agencies or brokerage offices, local and community profiles and a catchall “other.”

Most of the videos are less than five-minutes long. When they're over, users have the option to link to the same listing on the main Coldwell Banker site and get much more detailed information about square footage, an interactive map showing local services, community data, and the names and contact info of the brokerage and sales associate carrying the listing.

The videos are tagged to the listings on ColdwellBanker.com, so that when an agent sells a property and the system removes that listing from the Web site, it's taken down from the YouTube channel as well.

The company made a conscious decision not to require user registrations on the channel.

“We are a premium real estate brand, with an average sale price about 10% to 20% higher than the national average,” Fischer says. “For our target audience, a registration is a roadblock, and they'll bail off the site. We'd rather have them empowered to find the information they want, and then we'll find them as they move through the system.”

Video voices

The YouTube channel contained 500 videos at its May launch, but currently has more than 4,700 clips uploaded: mostly home listings, but also content ranging from third-party tips for selling or maintaining a home to mortgage advice for buyers and economic insights from Coldwell Banker president and CEO Jim Gillespie.

Thanks to promotion in TV commercials, online banners and search advertising, Coldwell's On Location channel has already garnered hefty channel view numbers: more than 430,000 channel views in its first five months.

“Our agents are starting to find their ‘video voice,’ ” Fischer says, and the company is helping by offering tips and highlighting examples on its intranet. One agent, Salem, MA-based Jen Maxwell, has even developed a signature video “bumper” with a tight shot of a Coldwell logo coffee cup against a seashore with soaring gulls and the tagline: “Yep, that's why I live in New England.”

Another agent in North Carolina creates weekly v-logs of her thoughts on the market from behind the wheel of her moving car, by attaching a Flip camera to her rear-view mirror. “We do not condone recording while driving,” Fischer adds.

Video also gives an opportunity to explore the luxe features of high-end properties, from building details like leaded-glass windows and pocket doors to gardens that would come off flat in a simple photo.

Siroty admits that the economic model for video may not work at the low end. “You can spend $5,000 to produce a good video for a $1.8 million property with no problem. But does that also work for a $200,000 property? That has yet to be determined.”

THE VIEW FROM CURBSIDE

Michael Fischer and Coldwell corporate can target real estate dreamers, but when those prospects start putting their dreams into action, they make contact with actual agents. How does this 3.0 marketing evolution look from the agency side?

Suzanne Mueller is vice president of marketing for a company that runs two Coldwell Banker affiliates in the Seattle and Portland, OR areas — taken together, the largest affiliate in the company. Like Fischer, she built her marketing resume in fields other than real estate and believes that outsider perspective informs her thinking.

“Marketing has been very agent-focused in real estate, and the consumer has been underserved,” she says. That has become more apparent as technology has put more information into shoppers' hands.

“Before, the listings were tightly controlled, and that was a source of power for the brokerages,” she says. “Now it's ubiquitous, and it's worth nothing unless you package it properly and deliver it to the right audience.”

Agents in Mueller's tech-savvy Northwest region have embraced video in a big way, she says, not just for listings but for their own profiles. They see it as a way to promote their personal brand prior to any outreach via phone, mail or e-mail.

Of course, it didn't hurt that one of the first agents to upload a video quickly sold a property — to a Californian who saw her video long-distance and felt a connection.

“You have to think of it as a migration,” Mueller says. “We started with video, which is very tangible to our agents, very understandable. Now we're moving into social media and started running classes in that last year. Since real estate is still a heavy-communications, high-touch industry, social media really hits our sweet spot.”
— Brian Quinton