Has Purplebricks turned the corner in Australia?

Despite recent setbacks in Australia, Purplebricks’ new CEO in Oz Neil Tavender has come out fighting, claiming that the business is growing and that 90% of its customers say they would use the hybrid agency again. Tavender has made the comments as he revealed that Purplebricks has hired oddly-named local digital agency King Kong to increase the rate at which people book appraisals. “We know that once we get a lead, our real estate agents have an extremely high rate of conversion,” he says. “As a disrupter in the real estate industry, we needed a campaign to match our agile, results-focused approach. So King Kong was the perfect fit.” Gorilla marketing The Melbourne-based digital agency has been creating marketing strategies and campaigns across a range of platforms including Google Ads, YouTube and Facebook. As The Negotiator reported last month, this digital marketing push coincides with a new advertising campaign launched by Purplebricks recently that aggressively savages Australia’s traditional estate agents, fronted by TV property expert John Du Bois. Both initiatives are attempts by Tavender to turn the business around, including the recruitment of more local property experts. Last year numbers dropped from 105 to 88 but research by The Negotiator…