Real estate website pulls dodgy house hunters campaign after two days
News Ltd’s property site realestate.com.au has pulled a series of online videos featuring devious house hunters using dirty tricks to get the home they want after just two days.
The campaign was created by digital agency Amnesia.
In a statement, the site’s general manager of consumer marketing Henry Ruiz claimed the videos had been removed because they had already succeeded in “generating buzz”. He said:
“There has been a mixed response to the videos. The videos were always only intended to be the teaser component of the launch campaign and we are now moving to the second phase of the campaign, the House Hunter Game, which will be hosted on our Facebook page.”
I think it’s hilarious that “some agents see this as promoting unethical behaviour.” [linked Property Portal Watch article], considering the behaviour we have to put up with day in and out from real estate agents. Pot calling the kettle black methinks.
Hear hear, Michael
Just putting the question out there…..
What does everything think of the realestate.com.au redesign/relaunch?
If I was rushing around every sweltering Saturday with petrol-station sunglasses on, profusely sweating under bad nylon suits and having to hide it all by virtue of a fake coffee stained “you can trust me” smile – I’d probably have reason to complain about next to anything…
The production/content of the videos was really poor, bordering on silly and didnt help the realestate.com.au brand at all – it looked like a homemade video and wasnt believeable at all. If the strategy was to create buzz around the site, it failed and instead left consumers with a negative impression. Unfortunate that this has all overshadowed the redesign, which was the actual intention of the campaign.
Well I liked the videos. Agents take themselves way too seriously.
Here we go, the ugly Australian “tall poppy syndrome” coming out or in the language of Gen Y – “y’all just a bunch of haterz”. All Aussies seem to do is tear ideas up or criticise – put shit on something that has potential.
Firstly, I agree that the negative comments are probably coming from people with agendas, that is, unemployed creatives – you are unemployed for a reason ’cause you are probably dead wood! Or unhappy ex- employees !
Secondly, i think the idea was to show normal everyday people and the extent they would go to to land their dream property and add some reality to home hunting, if they hired paid actors it would have been too slick and cheesy.
These “everyday people” are not expected to be NIDA graduates!
I have had a fiddle on the site and it provides a better user experience, for example, I can type exactly what i want, which is the exact adress of a house which i have seen for sale in my area.
Matt,
I can’t help but notice that you appear to be posting from an IP address that people from REA Group/ realestate.com.au have previously posted from.
If that is indeed the case, I do hope that you’ve more than “had a fiddle”. I’d have hoped you’d have actually done some proper user experience testing beforehand. If not, I can recommend a couple of digital agencies who might be able to help.
Cheers,
Tim – Mumbrella
Just so I get this clear Matt. The only comments that can be posted have to come in the form of praise even if you think the campaign falls short. And only those who are employed in creative roles can possibly see the creative insight and genius in the campaign. Hmm that leaves me in a quandry, I didn’t like them (personal opinion only, which I did think we were allowed to express in Australia without the reprisal of being labelled tall poppy cutter), and am employed as a creative in an agency. If you want smoke blown up your arse may I suggest a pack of cigarettes and a length of hose.
well done Tim…..you should run a campaign yourself….
“keep the bastards honest” .(If I recall a politcal slogan once used previously.)
Personally I would call it as i see it, crap ads, they paniced and then pulled them off.As anyone would.
That said I love some of the new functionality on the site and its a shame that the launch did not make that centre stage.
The campaign sucked, everyone knew it. End of story. Can’t always get it right.
Though, as much as it annoys me, I was hoping one of the real estate search sites would finally allow you to search by address, rather than just plugging it in to Google.
Begrudged kudos
If you’re going to get people to ACT I don’t think it matters if they are paid actors. Everyday people are great at being everyday people but you can’t expect them to ACT…or at least act well. Unless you’re making a dodgy looking testimonial then hire paid actors. Or at least a paid director. The quality really was awkward and embarrassing.
I loathe the new realestate.com.au site. I am addicted to property pr0n and used the old site frequently. The new one has removed some of the search by map features (can only go to state level – not so good if you’re thinking about moving interstate and aren’t sure of the individual towns/suburbs); the “sort by” feature seems to work only when it feels like it. If you enter into a specific property details and view the pictures in large form and want to go back it seems as though you must go back through all the pics – I can’t find the “return to search results”feature. All in all, I’ve started using other sites instead.