Starting late last year, provocative images started popping up all over Portland.
From the tops of buildings, next to Portland’s freeways, overpasses and bridges, steely-eyed people, clutching logging implements, stared down from massive billboards.
The unsaid message? The Portland Timbers, Portland’s new Major League Soccer franchise, was coming. And the fans were waiting.
The “We are Timbers” campaign, hatched by Jelly Helm, a former Wieden & Kennedy art director, was brilliant in its simplicity. The idea that a professional sports team would focus on its fans – rather than its players, deftly threw conventional sports marketing on its head.
No surprise, then, that the ads were a huge hit.
The Timbers marketing department didn’t stop there though. In January, it invited fans of the ads to become part of the campaign itself. The team set up a photographer in its downtown store and invited the public to come in and get their own free photograph for use on their Facebook and Twitter profiles.
Over the three-day period, more than 1,500 people lined up to get their own picture. My daughter Charlotte and I went down and tried to strike our best bad-ass “No Pity” pose.
As a result of the campaign, the Timbers cracked 25,000 fans on its Facebook page this month.
But perhaps more importantly, a quick look at the Flickr photostream from the shoot reveals that, in this small, simple effort, the Timbers captured the cultural nuances of a city and its people. And by focusing on real people, not models, it built near-instantaneous brand credibility with its audience.
This isn’t all about buzz either. The campaign has translated into real dollars. Over 11,000 season tickets (in a 19,000-seat stadium) have been sold. 33 sections, including all of the corporate suites, are sold out. Jersey sales are on fire. The club even expects to net a small profit in the first year.
Not bad for a expansion team that hasn’t even hit the turf yet.
So what does all this mean for real estate?
Clearly, many real estate brands struggle to connect with their markets. A decade’s worth of bad marketing ideas linger like skunky beer bottles and stale cigarette smoke after an all night bender.
Many brokers websites are stuffed with generic stock photos of fake families or “professionals” in business suits. Phoney Photoshopped agent headshots still show up on bus benches and postcards.
It’s time to clear the air.
If you’re struggling to figure the new world of marketing and advertising out, take a lesson from a soccer team. It’s not about you any more. It’s about me.
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Great post Joel, and I hope agent will pay attention. The industry marketing, if that’s what you call it, has always been tacky, but they see things through their own eyes. So they see what they want to see, and dontnrealize how out of step they are with consumers. And yes, it has always been about the realtor, never about the consumer. Isn’t it amazing how almost an entire industry has the same mindset, and sees only what they want to see…and all around them it’s entirely different.
“ideas lingering like slinky beer bottles and stale cigarette smoke”… Where have you been hang in when you’re out on the road. They need to start putting you up in better places.
So very true! Standing on the street corner yelling look at me is NOT the most effective way to market or advertise anymore in my opinion.
Another pile-on-crappy-realtors-and-marketing post. Really?
The only way to change this nonsense is to to start your own brokerage and run it like a fist class organization. Or become a realtor and handle your clients like a real professional.
Writing yet another rant about crappy real estate marketing – not so much.
Rob, on one hand youre correct and the only want to create change is with creating another brand, and do it right. However, the entire industry is held in such low esteem everywhere, that one office won’t make a dent. You can have a great office, but once you attach the name “realtor” to it…you have the realtor stigma. Having an office or two wont change what people think. But if it’s don’t as a group, it can happen. Need tostart looking at it from the perspective of the consumer, and I believe that’s what Joel us trying to point out.
Perception is everything, and I think he needs to keep hammering the point. Someone has to do it.
I hear you Rob – I was trying to offer an interesting case study outside of real estate that showed an organization actually executing a great consumer-centric marketing campaign.
Hopefully it would inspire someone to learn something from the example and apply it to their own business.
Joel, what you’re saying is all around us, but realtors and brokerages either don’t want to see it, or don’t understand it. Every day in the New York Times there are articles pointing out how companies are trying to differentiate themselves from the competition. Just yesterday..”Phones Try To Stand Out In A Crowd”…”how do you stand out from the crowd when most phones are near-identical glassy rectangles?…”hardware makers are being forced to find ways to appeal to buyers”.
You once spoke about Einstein’s Theory Of Insanity. That’s the world of residential brokerage. Maybe he was trying to sell his home using a Realtor at the time.
The industry looks more pathetic by the day
Don’t get me wrong, Joe, I’m a follower and a fan of yours and this blog.
I’m just over these types of posts. They are too easy to write, it’s all been said before.
So, nothing personal here. Just a comment on the topic, not the writer.
Steve – I know running one kick butt office won’t change the industry, but is there really anything more effective? Also, at least at your office, you can hold your head high and know you are a professional. At least YOUR clients will appreciate it.
Joel – I understand.
Ya’ll have a good weekend!