Here's the way it works:
A problem begets a product. A product begets a feature. A feature begets user behavior. User behavior begets a problem. The cycle continues on and on.
Get on your bikes and ride.
What often gets lost in that cycle is the omnipresent marketing that must capture and construct the narrative as it is developed, released, adopted and supported.
Yet here we are in this present moment where marketing must be nimble enough to create spur-of-the-moment greatness during the regular course of business. This is hard. Especially when your team keeps the engine running full speed each night with agents coding while everyone else sleeps.
And let's be clear about one thing: marketing has been made easier by AI. But it's been made easier by AI for everyone, so there really is no advantage. If everyone in Major League Baseball used steroids, we'd simply extend the fence. It would also mean that I've been saving these Barry Bonds cards for no reason at all.
But, this is what has happened in our world.
Creative marketing and creative teams must be empowered to bring stronger ideas to cut through all the noise. (Unrelated: I think we're all tired of hearing about noise and signal at this point, right?
This is also why when we were discussing how to market RealtyID™, we had to throw out the old playbook. In order to create the "Welcome to Real Estate" campaign, we'd need to do something that no one else in our space was doing. How do you really make identity a hot topic outside of a night club? RealtyID™ wasn't created on an iPhone using a template, so there was no way we were going to even try to distill it down to that level of production.
To do this, we enlisted to expertise of a production company in Denver, Colorado, called the Department of Creative Pursuits. DoCP is a production house and agency that has worked with Visit Denver, RiNo Arts District, Red Rocks, Red Bull, and created thousands of pieces of content for the lion's share of Denver's burgeoning arts community.
The only problem was that it must be turned around inside of two weeks. For those that have worked in production, filming, editing, color-grading, audio engineering and/or post-production for a 3-minute hero commercial cut knows that is a bit too much to handle inside such a tight window.
Admittedly, it came down to the wire for our team, too.
So, while our engineering team consistently churns out updates, our marketing team must focus on the core message: How do we tell this story? How do we communicate this effectively? How do we stand out?
There is a playbook to these things, but every time you do it somehow something is just different, or off. Background noise gets in the way of perfect audio. Traffic patterns in cities require multiple takes. Lines need to be practiced and rehearsed. Missed cues. Missed marks. It's all part of a human production.
(In the case of the Welcome to Real Estate production, I'm going to use "T-" as the prefix for each section with regard to the numbers of days remaining until we launched the campaign on September 22 with embargoes for reporters already delivered. Firm launch deadline.)
T-21) I approached DoCP with the concept for Welcome to Real Estate; A nightclub bouncer called RealtyID™ at Club Real Estate is checking IDs for the people who want to get inside. He questions each person with a different query symbolizing the same kinds of checks and balances the RealtyID™ performs when checking real estate licensing data. Each scene is its own vignette, while the hero video works as one cohesive story.
T-20) DoCP accepted the challenge to create the campaign, under a few strict deadlines: We must provide script and vignette scenes within three days. DoCP agreed to manage casting and production, set design and cinematography.
DoCP got underway casting and setting up production. This meant lighting and audio tests ahead of time. Closing down specific alleys for filming and getting the approval for such. That's not something that just happens.
Our script called for 40 extras. Could you activate 40 people for a film production in two weeks? DoCP did. The goal of the production was to create the sense that Club Real Estate is where everyone wanted to be, with buyers and sellers operating as the VIPs, and the real estate professionals as general admission. Checking their IDs represented our way of showing that everyone who uses RealtyID™ is exactly who they say they are and should therefor be allowed to conduct business in real estate.
T-13) Pre-production meeting with DoCP at their offices. Initial planning of script and line production for the night of filming, which is now only two days from now. We needed to work through and tighten up the lines, as well as organize the production flow for the evening. We decided to shoot in the back alley of DoCP, but this is in downtown Denver, so managing traffic, lighting and audio would be an issue. Screw it. Get the approval. We're doing it.
T-11) Film night! Call time on the production sheet was for 6pm with a wrap time of 12a. I arrived on-site with one of our tier 2 support guys, Nikita Sluchak, who you'll see acting in the commercial as John Smith #2 (the guy in the purple suit). We arrive a bit early and use the co-work space. We don't get the day off just because we're actors.
Jason Bustamante, our in-house graphic designer and brand marketer, would also be supporting production on the night as the behind the scenes photographer.
The extras started showing up and the warehouse started to fill. Granted, DoCP is a full production house - cyc wall, podcast studio, co-work space, et al - so there is a lot of room. Production filled the block through the alley where we'd be shooting, and everyone was called outside for a quick presentation before the cameras started rolling.
Once filming was underway, what really mattered was scripting and timing. Since we were bound for half-day rates with talent and production, it was important to deliver everything in as few takes as possible.
Thankfully, DoCP recruited the best of the best. Seriously. How we were able to land speaking talent within the short casting period who completely understood the production and process amazed me. This is the power, as we have talked about many times on this blog, of strong partnerships and trust.
I've worked with DoCP on various projects for nearly 15 years, and when you know who can absolutely deliver on a project, you call them. DoCP more than delivered. Full-scale production requires a lot of moving parts, and DoCP is a machine.
Our team has put a lot of time into the infrastructure that makes RealtyID™ possible. And we felt the need to put the same kind of energy into the campaign that brings it to life.
RealtyID™ is a simple concept, but not an easy one. One record per human. Seems simple enough to us. Yet somehow along the way millions and millions of records have been created, duplicated, shoved under the rug, criss-crossed borders, and re-used. And we are putting a stop to that. As of this writing we've identified
With RealtyID™, we see a simpler world for real estate professionals. One void of multiple logins to gain access to the same platforms you already use everyday.
Our campaign was simple: If you're in real estate in our world, you are who you say you are.
The goal is to show how our company simplifies things. That's it. That's all. We make conducting business in the world of real estate easier.
Like what you see? Grab a time and chat with our team to learn what RealtyID™ can do for your MLS or enterprise brokerage.