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REA Group names best in the industry at 2nd Annual REA Excellence Awards

Twenty-two winners from across the country were honoured at the second Annual REA Excellence Awards (AREAs) in Melbourne last night, recognising the property and media industry’s best innovators, marketers and community champions. The awards were presented across the categories of  Innovation, Service & Marketing Excellence, and Community.

This year saw the introduction of the Gold AREA Agency of the Year award – the award of all awards. The three Gold AREA winners from the Residential, Commercial and Developer industries excelled across all award categories. They set themselves apart by delivering outstanding customer service, creating new ways of working and the latest in home design, and their significant community contribution through engagement and partnerships.

Gold AREA Agency of the Year award winners

  • Market-leading real estate agency, Barry Plant Manningham – Residential Agency of the Year
  • Global real estate services firm, JLL – Commercial Agency of the Year
  • Beulah International – New Homes Player of the Year

Tracey Fellows, REA Group Chief Executive Officer, commented: “Congratulations to all our winners and finalists. The AREAs is all about celebrating our customers’ success and achievements and their contribution to such an important industry.

“There is so much passion, energy and creativity that drives this industry forward, and it’s our opportunity to celebrate that and recognise the best of the best.”

FULL LIST OF WINNERS

Gold AREA Agency of the Year award | Residential Agency of the Year – Gold AREA

Barry Plant Manningham, VIC

By successfully implementing a number of new initiatives across the business, Barry Plant Manningham demonstrated itself as a true leader across all three award categories. These included establishing a dedicated International Division to support overseas clients, launching a new automated response system, improving customer satisfaction, and ongoing support for the community through partnerships with Make-A-Wish and local school and sporting clubs.

Commercial Agency of the Year – Gold AREA  | JLL, AUS

JLL’s success has been built on delivering a first class customer experience across both sale and lease; supporting their clients through access to their global network of exports and comprehensive research and analytics capabilities. JLL are also supporters of a number of community initiatives, most notably as the major national sponsor of the Salvation Army’s red shield appeal.

New Homes Player of the Year – Gold AREA  | Beulah International, AUS

Not wanting residents to feel as though apartment living compromises their lifestyle, Beulah International’s state-of-the-art developments have included Australia’s first dog park in an apartment setting and a three-story elevated indoor forest. As a community-driven developer, Beulah International engages with local communities at all stages of a development – be it during the build, through a community engagement activity or in give charity initiatives raising awareness and funds for the Peter McCallum Cancer Foundation.

Residential real estate agents

Excellence in Customer Service | Danelle Hunter, Biggin & Scott Knox, VIC

A key driver of customer service retention initiatives, Danelle significantly contributed to the exponential growth that Biggin & Scott Knox experienced over the last 12 months. Specifically, helping to systemise the entire Property Management department enabled the team to deliver excellent customer service. This led to 46% growth, 100% retention rate and 95% satisfaction score over the last 12 months with their clients.

Brand Campaign of the Year | Memorable Moments Brand Campaign, Laing+Simmons, NSW

The Memorable Moments brand campaign was designed to celebrate the company’s 50th anniversary in a fun and engaging way. It included a unique competition and content series focused on innovation and technology over the last 50 years, aligning the companies brand with historical innovations.  The campaign resulted in a significant increase in social media reach, brand awareness and talent acquisition.

Contribution to Community | Walk a Mile Campaign, Harcourts Australia, AUS

The Walk a Mile campaign raises awareness and funds to create generational change in views toward domestic violence. In 2016, over 800 Harcourts staff, family, friends and supporters from across Australia ‘walked a mile’ in women’s heels to show solidarity and bring attention to violence against women. Over $118K was raised with 100% of the funds donated to White Ribbon’s Breaking the Silence programme in schools across Australia.

Residential Property Campaign of the Year | HOME.BYHOLLY, ACT

A dynamic, full-service boutique real estate agency, HOME.BYHOLLY ran a two week, PR style marketing campaign to differentiate a property in the lead up to auction. The campaign included creating a brand for the property, sending invitations to registered buyers for a preview event, utilising Facebook live and other social media platforms, as well as gaining editorial and media coverage. The campaign contributed to the property being sold for $115k above the preview event offer at auction.

Game Changer of the Year | Compton Green, VIC

Wanting to make a positive impact on the environment, Compton Green launched a program to enable real estate agents to check and assess potential environmental improvements that can be made to rental properties. The program has received considerable support from The Victorian Government, City West Water as well as property landlords. Since launch, more than 5,000 environmental audits have been conducted – adding up to a very positive impact on the environment.

Commercial real estate agents

Brand Campaign of the Year  | Be What’s Next Campaign, Cushman & Wakefield, AUS

Celebrating its 100th year in 2017, Cushman & Wakefield successfully launched a national campaign to increase visibility and positioning of its Australian brand to align with its outstanding global reputation. The Be What’s Next campaign delivered a high level of engagement internally, and their external campaign reached a targeted audience of more than 1.2 million and their website saw an 49% increase in visitors.

Commercial Campaign of the Year | CBRE Melbourne, VIC

Representing the last remaining permit approved development site in Melbourne’s CBD, CBRE created a distinctive, out-of-the box, multi-channel campaign to expose the property to the widest possible pool of local and offshore buyers and in turn achieve a premium price. The campaign gained extraordinary high exposure and sold to a Malaysian developer for a record Melbourne CBD land rate.

Contribution to Community | Cushman & Wakefield, AUS

Partnering with Jobsupport to create employment opportunities for individuals with an intellectual disability, Cushman & Wakefield currently have four paid employees through the Jobsupport program. This growing partnership with Jobsupport cements the company’s commitment to diversity and inclusion and has had a profound impact on not only the employed individuals, but also the broader organisation’s culture.

Excellence in Customer Service  | Jeremy Conybeare, FAL Property Group, NSW

Following a successful career as an entrepreneur, Jeremy entered the commercial real estate industry in his 40’s. Jeremy is known for going above and beyond; delivering a top-notch service to his customers. Jeremy builds rapport through finding common ground outside of real estate because he knows that people like doing business with people they like.

Game Changer of the Year | Dexus, VIC

Knowing that accessing childcare can be stressful with long waiting lists and limited places, Dexus partnered with Guardian Early Learning to provide priority childcare placement for their customers and employees. In an industry first, Dexus customers and employees now receive priority placement at any of Guardian’s 90 centres nationally, providing an easier transition for parents returning to the workplace.

Developers, home builders and project marketers:

Brand Campaign of the Year | Toast Creative, NSW

Tasked with bringing creative flair and edge to a heritage building conversion in the heart of Sydney, Toast Creative nailed the brief, creating an edgy and eye-catching brand identity. The campaign successfully caught the imagination of those looking to call part of this thriving community’s history their home, with over 2,700 enquiries received and 14 apartments sold to date.

New Home Marketing Campaign of the Year | Coronation Property, NSW

Successfully delivering a multi-channel marketing campaign reflective of the areas local heritage, world-class amenities, hospitality, luxury residences and global rooftop destination resulted in over 200 apartments being sold within two weeks of the first sales release. Another 189 apartments were snapped by up by the end of launch day raking in more than $160M in sales. The campaign struck a chord with locals, resulting in 72% of buyers being owner-occupiers excited to make Parramatta their home.

Contribution to Community | Henley, VIC

Every year Henley bands together with hundreds of their suppliers and trades to build a very special home to be auctioned, with all proceeds donated to the annual Good Friday Appeal in support of the Royal Children’s Hospital. In 2017, Henley, along with their partners, generated $1.9M worth of PR to build awareness of the home and project to get as many buyers come auction day. Over the past 24 years, Henley has donated $13.8M to The Royal Children’s Hospital through this initiative

Excellence in Customer Service | Mirvac, NSW

In response to rising Sydney property prices which posed a threat to first home buyers entering the property market, Mirvac launched ‘The Right Start’ housing affordability initiative. With support from the Government, Mirvac launched this initiative alongside their Pavilions Development. Affordable deposit schemes, stock being reserved for pre-qualified first home buyers and educational programs have helped 50 Australians realise their home ownership dreams at Pavilions.

Media agencies and clients

Brand Campaign of the Year | Closer Than You Think Campaign, Bankwest, AUS

Bankwest, in partnership with REA Group, launched the Closer Than You Think brand campaign; targeted at homeowners dreaming of owning a bigger home. Leveraging a decoupled data strategy, video series and editorial coverage, the campaign gave homeowners renovation and refinance inspiration, tips and tricks, all housed on a bespoke content hub on realestate.com.au. The Bankwest sponsored content was widely viewed, featuring three of the Top five guides articles in the campaign period.

Contribution to Community | Mindshare Melbourne, VIC

When a member of their team was diagnosed with breast cancer, the Melbourne Mindshare office decided to host a World’s Greatest Shave event with seven of their staff volunteering to go under the razor. The efforts on the day raised $8.5k without any corporate support, which was well beyond their $5k target. The World’s Greatest Shave event showed huge community spirit from the mindshare Melbourne office and the media industry in coming together to show support for one of their own.

Direct Response Campaign of the Year | RateCity, AUS

RateCity’s Switch & Save sale was the first home loan sale of its kind, and a first for retail banking. RateCity and REA Group joined forces earlier this year to promote the RateCity event. The campaign objective was to ‘takeover’ several realestate.com.au verticals for two weeks to make this sales event unmissable for home buyers and refinancers. The campaign resulted in an incredible numbers of registrations and generated a campaign record of leads; exceeding expectations and receiving positive feedback from all lenders involved.

Game Changer of the Year  | BRICKX, AUS

BRICKX revolutionises residential property investment for all Australians. Significantly disrupting the financial and property industries, BRICKX is striving to be a fintech industry leader and believes through greater education and transparency, they are able to empower their customers to make confident investment decisions. Since officially launching as a retail platform in September 2016, BRICKX has grown from 140 investors to nearly 5,000 active investors.

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