Meet Captain Jones.
There was a time when Captain Jones mattered to the consumer.
The individual pilot was a bankable brand marker.
That was then.
This is now:
Delta hired SS+K Advertising to handle the new "Change is" ad campaign.
Delta moved from the past to the present.
They realized pilots don’t sell seats.
Delta went through some tough times before emerging from bankruptcy in April, 2007. Business was bad. The airline industry endured its own bubble burst. Like real estate is now.
They invested. Rebuilt. Re-branded. Recommitted. Connected.
Who is investing in change in real estate?
Who is updating their image?
Who is listening to the consumer?
Who is investing, re-branding, recommitting, reconnecting? Who is changing?
I see someone is.
Or are they?
This ad is part of a campaign now running in my local paper. Each week the "changing face" changes and features a different Captain Jones Realtor face.
I ask myself each week …
Does the consumer care anymore?
Do we believe each and every one of the agents WILL do what the ad says?
If these are the changing of faces of real estate … why is it they look exactly like the every other face in real estate?
HOW will you sell my house?
HOW will you seek the perfect buyer?
HOW will you guide me?
What is your service guarantee?
Without these things, this ad is just advertising flatulence.
I see a big opportunity for real estate companies that start speaking with a more authentic voice. I’ve got plenty of ideas. How about you?
– Davison
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Amen, Amen, Amen to this…
Nobody cares about your face.
I actually got queasy when I saw that ad.
Amen, Amen, Amen to this…
Nobody cares about your face.
I actually got queasy when I saw that ad.
I agree wholeheartedly. The public doesn't give a crap about realtors' pretty faces. Yet so many egomaniac or misguided realtors use their face as their brand. This inevitably puts them in a quandary as I wrote about in this article on Realtor Egos Run Amok: http://www.justnewlistings.com/arlington-virginia-blog/jay-seville/realtor-egos-gone-amock/show/.
This is all true but the average agent on the street doesn't know that.
They don't plug into the word on the street.
They don't buy into the advice of true marketing professionals.
They seem to resort to the advice of coaches and advertising gurus whose only qualification is that they sold real estate in the 70's and 80's.
Branding is both science and an art that seems to be all but obliterated by the shear happenstance of being recognzied at the local marketplace. That's hardly a metric I would base my entire marketing campaign on.
Using your face as you brand worm at the end of business hook can only work under certain very specific conditions.
You need to have a very special face.
There is a reason why these people below are used in branding campaigns. Their look exudes the image of the brand.
Amber Valetta
Angela Lindvall
Christy Turlington
Elsa Benitez
Eva Herzigova
Gisele Bundchen
Valeria Mazza
Antonio Sabato Jr.
Marcus Schenkenberg
Mark Vanderloo
Its why designers are incredibly picky about who they use.
In real estate, most of the faces are just another face in a sea of faces with messages that all say the same thing, they same way on the same sites, cards, flyers, etc.
In truth, what real estate does is so out of the box of conventional wisdom it maddening.
It truly reduces the seriousness and severity of the service provided.
So share with us these "plenty of ideas" that you speak of!
New ideas are forthcoming – stay tuned as we will begin publishing them shortly.
I was once told that whenever I write copy to take out the word "I" and replace it with "You".
This ad would be much more powerful if the headline read "YOU are the changing face of real estate" and had a pitcure of the family.
And then the tagline "…and YOUR home will sell."
I believe going the opposite route of this ad might create a very interesting campaign.
What if you had an ad with 75% white space and the line…"Our agents don't matter."
Copy: "You won't see pictures of our agents (or their dogs) in our ads because they don't matter. You do. It's your house that needs sold, it's you that need answers, it's your family that needs help."
Or something like that…
Sorry for the ramblings…I really wanted to be a copywriter!
John
Wow John.
You are right on the money.