There’s no denying we’ve all seen a monumental shift in property marketing over the last few years and it’s one of the most exciting times to work in the industry.
2023 will be no exception.
The key difference in 2023 vs. 2022 will be the change in external market forces. As buyer demand outstripped supply for the last few years, property people didn’t really need to work ‘particularly’ hard to think outside the box when selling their homes.
As we enter a recession in 2023 there will come a tipping point where property starts to stick and agents need to work harder for their homes to stand out.
We’ve been speaking to agents and developers and reviewed 2022 to give our best guesstimate of the trends in Property Marketing that we’ll see in 2023…
So here we go!
Prediction 1) The TikTok Effect grows
Whilst the ‘pandemic’ years of 2020 - 2021 were the golden years of VR, 2022 has surely been the golden year of Video in property. It’s everywhere! Meanwhile, the rapid growth of short form video across Insta-Reels, YouTube Shorts and TikTok has meant that Agents and Developers have had to adapt to win more eyeballs.
Expect more of it in 2023. Property video will typically become shorter, snappier and more engaging. Delivering impact in the first few seconds – not minutes.
Want inspo from 2022?
Prediction 2) Airbnb-ification of Rightmove et al.
Yes, it’s a thing(!) and more agents, landlords & developers will be adopting their visual formula in 2023, whether they know it or not.
So, what is it?
One word. Consistency.
Airbnb has a set of stringent property marketing rules and regulations that means they maintain a consistent look & feel across their site. From staging, to composition, colour and even down to the ‘figure-ground’ relationship of their furniture... all laddering up to the fact you can tell it’s an Airbnb listing, just by looking at one of their photos.
Expect long-term lets to rival Airbnb in terms of presentation, and for agents and developers to develop their own consistent, brand-building style across their property marketing assets from plans to pics.
Want inspo from 2022?
Prediction 3) The battle of the ‘Apple vs. Microsoft’ estate agent heats up
Less a trend in property marketing methods, than an observation of the people behind it. There's been much talk about self-employed agents, hybrid, and online but we think the change runs deeper than that. 2021 – 2022 has seen the growth of what we’ve coined as the ‘Apple agent.’
The 'Apple' agent ‘dares to be different’.
2023 will see more defectors, rebrands & start-ups that follow suit (or in this case – don’t follow suit!)…typically dropping the shirt & tie and instead looking more like a marketing agency than an estate agency.
It’s bigger than the change in clothes though. It’s a change in mindset & culture. One that thrives on creativity, puts marketing at the centre of the organisation and celebrates authenticity, as well as typically being design led.
Want inspo from 2022?
Prediction 4) Green Bricks trump Purple Bricks
Admission alert, this has nothing to do with Purple Bricks... but we liked the title.
So what are we on about?
Whether it’s greener energy, green waste, travel, insulation, or technology, it’s becoming increasingly obvious that sustainable homes are more attractive to potential tenants, purchasers & investors.
Expect ESG to move from a tick box exercise for developers & agents to a major selling point in 2023, with a major driver being the rising cost of energy.
We’re already seeing adverts persuading house hunters to swap their established desires for a Victorian terrace with a modern, insulated new build. Heating, electric car points, solar et al. will no longer feature as an ‘afterthought’ on the back-page and instead move to front and centre of sales particulars. Finally, the EPC comes of age!
Want inspo from 2022?
Legal & General – Modular builds
Prediction 5) CG Animation becomes mainstream
The pressure to create video content and short-form clips as part of the marketing mix when selling new builds is real. But when the property doesn't exist yet, it’s not so easy!
When it came to CG Animation a few years ago, developers & new home agents had the choice to either cough up the equivalent of a Hollywood feature film or settle for a naff clip that resembled the hit 1993 game, Doom.
But these days with real-time rendering, CG animation is becoming more accessible to small and medium size developers too.
Expect to see more animated CGI in 2023. From short cinemagraph style animated imagery to full-blown 60-second feature films, with near-photo-realistic capsules of cinematic beauty.
Want Inspo from 2022?
Watch a recent CG Animation we created by DCTR for the Land & New Homes Network -
Prediction 6) Ai Everything
2022 saw the launch of our own integrated Ai within our brand-new Doctor Photo platform at DCTR, and it’s safe to say it was a successful launch.
Take up far exceeded expectations as it appeared our clients love the ability to turnaround enhanced photos in seconds, rather than wait a few hours for one of us to edit them by hand when we got to them in the queue.
Expect that trend to continue in 2023 across more services. Agents & developers will be integrating more Ai into their marketing workflow from helping them with inspiration via ChatGPT, to using Ai to help with segmentation, direct mail and social media ads.
Want inspo from 2022?
Visit Doctor Photo to try out our Ai Facelifts – your first 5 are free!
Prediction 7) In a world of pure imagination
As Willy Wonka famously sang, "Come with me and you'll be In a world of pure imagination, Take a look and you'll see Into your imagination."
…And, well that’s the problem. Many people really can’t see what’s possible with the space presented to them if it's uninspiring.
Expect the best agents & developers in 2023 to be the 'Willy Wonka’s' of the property world and help prospective buyers imagine the possibilities.
As mentioned above, you could argue that the last few years have been favourable for the average agent or house builder. To some extent, houses sold themselves!
Anecdotally since demand has slowed down, we’ve been hearing of more and more agents looking for new ways to widen the net, inspire and pull the emotional heart strings that could help prospective buyers fall in love with a property. Some innovative companies like Flyp have built re-decorating and re-furnishing into their business proposition; guaranteeing a higher return on investment to sellers by creating a more appealing purchase proposition that tugs on the emotional heart strings.
Expect to see wider use of inspirational imagery and carefully staged homes
- Whether there’s planning permission for a detached garage – that will now be visualised rather than relying on PDF plans.
- Whether the kitchen is from the 1970s – a new one will be visualised to show the potential of the space
- Whether the front of the house lacks kerb appeal – expect to see variations with new render and cladding types, new windows, and doors. Much can be achieved digitally – this is great, especially if you just want to show a property’s potential without spending on materials and labour or if the developer isn’t sure what treatment would work best and wants to test out different ideas. Take a look at some examples.
- Whether the furniture is old fashioned or the space lacks imagination – expect these rooms to either be re-staged virtually by people like our studio, or physically by experts like Lemon & Lime Interiors. In fact, in a recent post by Elaine Penhaul, their founder, Lemon & Lime Interiors prepared two properties in the run up for Christmas which were launched on Boxing Day. They had both accepted offers, one on 6th, the other on the 9th of January. One went 10% over asking price. This holds up to their record for every Boxing Day launch they have ever staged. Every one has gone under offer by the second week in Jan. Whatever the arguments, her evidence says - if any agent out there wants to book properties into December 2023 now, then they have a 100% track record of Boxing Day success!
Want inspo from 2022?
DCTR inspirational changes
Lemon & Lime Interiors
Prediction 8) Property socials will feature Micro & Nano Influencers
No we’re not talking about Simon Whale(!).. whilst Whaley might be a big influencer to the property industry, we’re talking about influencers to potential purchasers and renters (Although I would quite like Simon to give it a go!).
With companies looking to build meaningful relationships with longer-term customers before and after transaction, micro-influencers look set to become a permanent fixture of their communications strategies long into 2022 and beyond.
Property has been somewhat behind the influencer curve but we think 2023 will see a shift. Already, some large house builders like Redrow use nano-influencers to tell an authentic story about life in a Redrow home
Expect micro-influencers to appear in property tours for developments, B2R, student accommodation and the odd luxury gaff too!
Want inspo from 2022?
Prediction 9) Commercial Agents will start providing floor plans
Having hunted for a new commercial space for 3 – 4 months in 2022 and never once come across a floor plan (…which we so desperately wanted!), this is perhaps our most risky of predictions!
Commercial agents, here’s a tip. Business owners are people too. We need to visualise desks, meeting rooms and break out spaces. Please provide floorplans!
2023 will be the year of the floorplan for the commercial agent. We can feel it!
Prediction 10) Purple cows – everywhere
Perhaps the most inevitable, but the hardest to pin down is the guarantee that we will see a lot of purple cows in property marketing over 2023.
Seth Godin famously coined the phrase Purple Cow to represent standing out from the crowd.
2022 has already seen some impressive ‘firsts’ that have grabbed the headlines, including –
- Spitfire Homes and their first-of-its kind show home and marketing suite in the metaverse Read more.
- Berkeley Homes and their innovative multi-sensory immersion room Read more.
- Fine & Country who launched what is believed to be the first luxury home to be sold simultaneously both as a physical property and a digital or ‘meta’ version via a non-fungible token or NFT Read more.
As agents and developers will need to work increasingly harder to inspire, motivate, attract and fight for eyeballs, expect to see some really impressive, out-there thinking and activations in 2023!
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