The Negotiator The essential site for residential agents
As any estate agency will know who has tried it, making videos to promote an estate agency business is no easy task.
Staff can look like petrified rabbits in front of car headlamps and backdrops often appear to be borrowed from school plays.
But one agent who claims to have cracked the problem is Benjamin Stevens, whose MD and marketing boss have launched a Good Morning Britain-style TV show that’s proving an unexpected hit.
Six months ago it launched a video channel, North London TV, on Facebook and says it is attracting over 23,000 views to its 10-minute programmes.
Presented by the company’s MD and founder Steve Wayne and his marketing chief Rosanne Oppenheimer, the duo interview local community leaders and business people as well as giving viewers insights into local property markets.
Second series
Already in its second series, the video content is unusual because it doesn’t plug Benjamin Stevens, although it features the same font and brand colours as the agency.
Wayne says his reasoning behind the considerable expense of making the videos via a production company has always been to try and stop Rightmove and the other portals he lists on swallowing his brand up and making him ‘just another agent on a portal’.
“Our aim with producing North London TV is to inadvertently make Benjamin Stevens stand out from the crowd and at the same time champion North London,” says Oppenheimer.
“Steve and I were both born, grew up in, and now raise our own families in North London.
“We know the area both personally and professionally. It’s a great place to live, a sound place to invest in and this is the key message we are trying to get across to our audience”.
Read more about Steve Wayne.
Any initiative that sets an agency apart is a good one, and I wish them all success, and branding and re-reinforcement of who the face of the company is increasingly the same thing. Like a lot of things return on investment is always tricky to assess, but doing nothing or the same old thing often gets the same result.
Huge congratulations to Steve for this venture. It’s so important for any agent to build their own media platform. Video, along with podcasts and blogs does that superbly for an agency.
One slight reservation – Facebook owns this platform and the data of those 23,000 views. It’s using Facebook’s audience, so there is less control.
I wish Benjamin Stevens every success.