Creative Marketing: 3 Agents Who Are Breaking the Mold

When it comes to creative marketing, there can be a fine line between memorable and mortifying. Puns, sight gags and over-the-top tactics can leave an audience rolling their eyes or, worse, scratching their heads in confusion. But if you commit to a thoughtful and inventive marketing strategy, you can turn a bemused audience into a delighted one — and get them to remember you.

Here are three agents who are breaking the mold with their creative marketing tactics.

This video home tour is on pointe

Today’s real estate agent knows the value of adding video to their marketing repertoire, whether they’re shooting home tours, commercials or client testimonials to share with their website visitors. Fairfield-based listing agent Todd David Miller of The Higgins Group/Christie’s International Real Estate created a video that showcased a 9,661-square-foot mansion. But instead of the talking head or agent voice-over, a troupe of dancers guide viewers through the $7.8 million home and its grounds. Like a music box dancer, a ballerina gracefully turns in the foyer before two others, on pointe, open the doors to the dining room. Outside, two youthful ballroom dancers glide and leap across the veranda, while others in modern dress pose as living statuary around the pool area.

The video takes viewers throughout the home and while not all rooms feature the dancers, their periodic appearances are designed to reflect the home’s refinement. What better way to deliver the message that you, too, can live amid class and elegance than to create a video home tour accompanied by ballerinas and chamber music?

Nacha ordinary team

Dorita Mayeux knows the power of name recognition. The Largo, Florida-based real estate agent emphasizes having fun while helping buyers and sellers, and it shows. She plays on her first name, offering leads a bag of Doritos when she meets with them, and her professional portrait shows her holding a bag of the chips. Mayeux takes the A-for-O swapping even further, referring to her real estate team — which includes her daughter, husband and their office manager — as Nacha Ordinary Team (Not Your Ordinary Team). Every now and then, Mayeux changes out the flavor of the Doritos in her photo. Perhaps she switches to the blue bag when she’s got a listing for a cool ranch home.

Lest you think it’s too corny to catch on, the pun caught the attention of Ellen DeGeneres, who featured Mayeux on the “Really Real Realtors®” segment of her show.

Seeing more with Periscope

It seems there are a dozen new apps to download every week — apps that help save time, money, labor — so what can you do with Periscope, an app that streams live footage? Lots, says Dean Ouellette. Periscope allows users to share and view broadcasts in real time. Broadcasters simply tap the broadcast icon, give their broadcast a title, make it public or private and then point their smartphone at a subject — often themselves; users are instantly connected to their audience. Viewers open the app and can see a list of all Periscope broadcasts that are happening at the moment, and then select one to join. There’s also a chat window to comment; if they like what they see, viewers can tap the screen to send the broadcaster a heart — the Periscope equivalent of a “like.”

Ouellette’s initial experiments with the app entailed tours of local hotspots in his Chandler, Arizona community. As he became more adept, he broadcast live walkthroughs of the homes he was showing. Ouellette’s Periscope broadcasts have garnered leads he might not otherwise have received through traditional means. For example, a gentleman relocating from Detroit contacted Ouellette after viewing one of his Periscope home tours.

Playing on words and names, or leveraging emerging technologies, can help make you memorable to buyers and sellers — not only for the novelty behind your ideas, but for the surprise-and-delight element as well. Who you are as a person and a real estate agent will always differentiate you from the competition. A well-executed marketing campaign, with visuals or syntax that is a departure from traditional means, can also help attract like-minded consumers who like your style.