There's a term for spending hours of your evening browsing Rightmove, fantasising about the life you could have if you bought the house advertised for sale next door (....with that 4th bedroom and the extended garden). Or the 'sort by highest price,' 'distant from your own tax bracket' type of fantasy you get when browsing at 1am...
It's called Property Porn.
Park the obvious. We know Grand Designs, Location Location Location, and Rightmove fuel the obsession. They're already famous for it. And George Clark...well he's the modern day Hugh Hefner...
No, there's another breed in 2022.
They're the guys and girls that push the boundaries of property marketing in 2022.
Those that work the hardest to turn property voyeurs into property viewers.
To be clear, only a few in this list are my clients. I'm far too introverted to schmooze on such a public level. No... these are just people, marketing departments and brands that I've picked up along the way over the last 7 years whilst running a property marketing agency.
Covering all areas of property from estate agency to purpose built student accommodation - and in no particular order...
Future Generation
These guys know their market. With a high tenant churn rate and an over-stimulated but discerning customer base, student accommodation providers only have a short window to make an impact.
Well - Future Generation create spaces that students want to live in and property marketing that drives cut through. Using distinctive imagery that's lifestyle driven and looks more fashion magazine than property magazine - this stuff is cutting edge and rarely seen in the property industry.
Hortons
Lovely distinctive brand in and around Leicester that call themselves a 'property agency for the modern world.' I've added Hortons in the list mostly because of their tiktok. Take a look for yourself - they can drive hundreds of thousands of views for a 1-bed bungalow. And their approach is rather simple. There's no plinky plonky Facebook recorder music from a 2004 sales conference, or awkward estate agent standing out the front talking about the local schools for 5 minutes. No...It's a warm and consistent formula for all their videos, following an agent around the home for sale as they wave you (the viewer) to follow - all supported by some lo-fi music.
And it appears to work for them.. in a recent article in the evening standard, Horton said “One property in Leicester had around 39,000 views and we ended up booking nine physical viewings from the video.”
Tiktok Video Copyright Hortons Estate Agents
Berkeley Group
Berkeley Group is famous in the industry for their property marketing, so it's no surprise to see them in my list. Everything from their homes, to the assets they create to sell them including their plans, brochures, and imagery is stand out, and easily market-leading. But that's not the reason I've included them.
Enter - The Immersion Room. Check it out here! 'Unlock your imagination' they say. Experience the world of West End Gate in a multi-sensory environment, they go on to say. SO cool, and such a fresh step in the world of offplan marketing. I have no idea who the creative agency behind it is and surely they're a competitor, but bravo I say..
Mr & Mrs Clarke
I interviewed Mr Clarke in my latest property marketing podcast and what a dude. With a background in events, Mr Clarke set out to start a discerningly different agency around 5 years ago and has gone strength to strength with his fresh approach to property marketing.
What makes Mr & Mrs Clarke property marketing a contender for the top 10? It's their down to earth, 'let's do the basics bloody well' approach. You won't hear proptech as their saviour to establishing a brand built for the 21st century. No, it's the distinctive assets they create very time they go to market.
From using people in their imagery, to encouraging pets to be the star of the show. Their copy is 'human' and they drive trust through their self-deprecating, cool as a cucumber approach to their property marketing. Well deserved and onwards and upwards for a great brand.
Hayfield Homes
It's another tiktok, 'insta-brand' with a VERY distinctive 'interior-design' led approach to their property marketing.
Oozing property appeal, Hayfield homes are incredibly consistent with their tonality when it comes to dressing their homes and showing them off in the videos and pimages on their channels. With cream, whites and black as their signature colours - their homes take luxury to another level.
With 500k likes on tiktok alone, these guys are doing something right and their marketing is spot on.
Anchor Hanover
As England's largest provider of specialist housing and care for people in later life, Anchor knows a thing or two when it comes to marketing to a niche, and creating irresistible imagery and marketing communications to create a sense of community, security, independence and peace of mind for their prospective customers.
We have been really proud to work with anchor for a number of years helping them create imagery that appeals and most recently, with their launch of The Atlas, commissioned us to help them bring the new development to life. Purposefully longer than the usual animation, anchor wanted to give a true representation for their prospective residents by visualising all the communal areas and every side of the exterior, so they could show their customers exactly what life might be like when the development is ready to move into. A worthy contender with a niche, but growing category, it's a pleasure to include them.
Ben Moore - The bearded agent
I've seen Ben Moore around the 'internet' block for a while now and his style keeps getting better and better - just like his beard. I discussed above about the potential pitfalls with agents talking outside a house on film but Ben has crafted a style that rivals Location Location Location in production value.
As mini-episodes of Grand Designs in their own right, every property is supported with a video showing smooth visuals, playing chilled acid jazz and a supported by a comprehensive sales pitch by Ben - covering everything about the local area and architecture of the home.
Ben is one of the original creators of this style of property video and will no doubt continue to innovate and craft his unique approach to showing houses at their best.
Tyron ash
Love them or loathe them, there's no denying that central to Tyron Ash and his agents' ethos is loud, brash, social led, viral glitz and sex appeal. They live, breathe and create it with every property they bring to market. So unique is their approach, that they managed to secure a Channel 4 'Selling Sunsets style' fly-on-the-wall documentary that followed their agents around whilst they listed and sold high-end properties.
Tyron and his agents' are dressed to impress, just like their properties and there's no doubt they'll continue to do well with their distinctive style in this social media driven world.
ThamesWey
With a background in sustainable energy, few people know of ThamesWey as a developer but they are, and are smashing it - having quickly become leaders in the Build to Rent space in and around Surrey.
ThamesWey showed the development world how to convert commercial into residential living. 'properly'. There's no doubt that with the onset of covid and more working from home, there's been an influx in office to apartment property-conversions, but the problem has often been that these apartment blocks still look and feel like offices.
ThamesWey recently smashed down those barriers, creating 'The Cornerstone' in Woking.
With exposed concrete ceilings, bespoke joinery, and enough storage to keep an elephant, ThamesWey created something amazing..
Luckily, we had the opportunity to help them craft their assets - from CGI to branding, brochure to minisite.
And with such a huge influx of international tenants who booked their rental from the comfort of their Chinese sofa's, it clearly had a broad appeal! It goes to show, get the marketing right - and the rest will follow.
The House Partnership
And finally... to close off the top 10 property marketing creators - we include the House Partnership. An estate agency based in Cranleigh who are famous for their epic, short films.
Video has increasingly been a tool of the trade but few have mastered it quite like the House Partnership. God knows what they must cost but I presume they charge the vendor as a keepsake... but they're totally worth it.
Each shoot showcases the house amongst a believable, but aspirational lifestyle with families, friends, landrovers and pets all having a starring role. From running through fields to following a dog in the kitchen, you can imagine yourself living the perfect life if you were lucky enough to move in to one of their homes.
Well done House Partnership for creating a distinctive, cut-through style in a competitive market.
And that's it folks. There's plenty more where they came from but these guys have shone brightly over the years.
Congrats to all that featured!
