With listings and transactions taking a hit as a result of COVID-19, agents have increasingly been looking to more innovative marketing tactics to gain exposure for their properties.
Collings Real Estate‘s leading sales agent Christian Gravias has been successfully implementing a range of unique marketing strategies that have proven highly effective in the current climate.
The Melbourne agent has focused on increasing the visibility of unique properties through viral video campaigns as well as being the first to implement influencer marketing strategies.
Mr Gravias has just launched his latest marketing campaign featuring Melbourne-based street artist Lushsux, built around a unique converted shopfront in Coburg.
“When I turned up to look at the property I said, ‘This is extremely quirky. We’re going to be aiming for a specific type of buyer’,” he explained.
“And I decided that it needed to have some very cool marketing tactics, some very different marketing tactics – and that is especially true during the COVID times.
“I felt it was all about getting as much attention and eyeballs on the property as possible.”
In designing a marketing campaign, Mr Gravias wanted to tie in the look and feel of the property and combine it with some star power.
“We’ve used the street artist, Lushsux, who is a very big street artist and I think he’s added a lot of personality to the property,” he said.
“It’s on Munro Street so we decided to give the property a name and we called it Monroe House and we got Lushsux to paint Marilyn Monroe onto the property.
“By doing this it’s added to the quirkiness of the property. It’s given it some life, but it’s also having Lushsux do that, it’s a pretty big name. He’s got a million followers online and he’ll help us get eyeballs on the property.”
On top of the work by Lushsux, Mr Gravias has also created a video featuring a Marilyn Monroe-themed dancer showcasing the property.
The strategy of creating viral videos has already proven a successful one for Mr Gravias, who has sold other properties using a similar approach.
“We’ve done a Joker, a James Bond video and a Risky Business video,” he said.
“They’ve all got over 100,000 views online and we’ve used this tactic to sell property before.
“The Joker Port Melbourne video was a Joker dancing around a house and the buyer actually came from the video, so we know it gets attention.”
On top of the video campaign for Monroe House, Mr Gravias is also using influencer marketing to help boost exposure for the property.
“I think I’m the first real estate agent in Australia to do it and this is the first time I’ve done it.
“We’ve got influencers to take photos in front of the mural of Marilyn Monroe and they’re going to be posting it out.
“With just the influencers’ online presence, I think they’ve got about 200,000 to 300,000 followers between them.
“So by pushing that out, tagging Collings Real Estate, Christian Gravias and 161 Munro Street, it’s just all about getting attention.”
Mr Gravias said that in the current environment, sales agents need to do a lot more on the marketing side of their business.
“I’m just outside the box thinking. That’s what it’s about. It’s about pushing the boundaries and just doing things that haven’t been done in the industry before to try to revolutionise the industry or innovate the industry.
“Especially in this market – we can’t just rely on realestate.com or Domain. Everyone’s doing that. We’ve got to be different. It’s about attention.”
