Meet the New coldwellbanker.com – Pocket Edition

March 26, 2012
Posted by gustavo_gonzalez in Marketing
9 Comments

The New Touch & Non-Touch Version of coldwellbanker.com

I don’t know if it’s just me but doesn’t it seem like technology and innovation seem to operate in dog years? What happens in a calendar year or two is really more like 7 and 14 years worth of  new technologies, data infrastructure, social networks, mobile devices, enhancements, software, so on and so forth. I might be exaggerating a tad bit (am I?) but we all know that “things” are moving lightning fast and consumers are expecting their favorite brands to offer experiences that are in lock-step with what’s new and relevant. Fall a step or two behind and they’ll keep moving without looking back.

In 2008 we became the first national real estate brand to launch a version of our website tailored specifically for mobile devices. With the boom of applications for smartphones and tablets, many in the industry prophesized that mobile web browsing would go by the wayside but our numbers and recent industry data suggest that the complete opposite is true. In 2011, we saw a 111% year over year increase in visits to our mobile websites*. Microsoft Tag released an infographic last year that stated that by 2014, mobile internet usage should overtake desktop internet usage. Yes, the app and mobile website will coexist and play a major role in our lives for the foreseeable future.

With all this mind, we’ve gone ahead and completely overhauled our mobile website offering to better align them with our other platforms. They’re easier to use and navigate, they look better and have new functionality that only the Coldwell Banker brand can offer to home shoppers. Here’s some of what we’ve done:

  1. Completely redesigned navigation and look & feel for a better user experience. It looks and works GREAT.
  2. Integrated tens of thousands of listing, agent, office, spotlight and community videos from Coldwell Banker On Location
  3. Ability to share agents, listings and offices on the top Social Networks
  4. Added a “Search Nearby” feature
  5. Created unique separate experiences for touch devices like the iPhone and Android and non-touch devices like the Blackberry
  6. Added the ability to search by map and more!

Simply type coldwellbanker.com into your mobile device’s browser and we’ll do the rest. We’ll serve up a website tailored specifically for your device as well as millions of listings, well over 80,000 agents, thousands of videos and a whole lot more. Check out our promo video below and happy home searching!

*Internal Coldwell Banker analytics

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The Value of a Home

March 5, 2012
Posted by mike_fischer in General,Marketing
71 Comments

 

I am shocked at the sheer volume of charts, graphs and heat maps that try and focus consumers on the stats and appreciation trends in home buying and selling. Now, the dollars and cents and crime stats are all a part of the decision to buy a home, but its not the only or even most important reason. Why do people buy homes?  Its for lifestyle. It’s personal.

There were two things I wanted more than anything growing up on the Jersey Shore in Ventnor, NJ: a new car and a house. My mom had an old Chevy Bel Air that was always breaking down. Dates were always a challenge when you are trying to impress a girl but didn’t know if the starter would work.  We rented a series of apartments during my teens because the landlord(s) either sold the building, gave the apartment to their kid, hated our dog, or raised the rent to the point where we had to move. I never was able to paint my room a color other than “off white”. I couldn’t do anything in the backyard like plant a tree/shrub, put a swingset there, or even mow the lawn when the grass got too long.  The kitchens were always “apartment grade.”  Things always broke and you had to wait for the landlord to fix it, if they ever did.

Fast forward to today, and I’ve had the pleasure of working for two great companies that in a bizarre way, allowed me to get what I had been looking for all those years ago.  For 15 years I worked for a car company, and got a new car every year.  That was sweet!  And now, I am the chief marketing officer for Coldwell Banker Real Estate.   And not only do I help our brokers and agents make home ownership possible for hundreds of thousands of people each year, we have just developed a new television campaign that I believe really hits at the heart of home ownership.  And after the past four years of doom and gloom, we need a little heart right now.  We have to get back to the “why” that people buy homes.

We have a :60 anthem (see below) that explains our unique view of the value of a home.  The voice on the spot is the great Tom Selleck.  Not only is he the star of the hit CBS series Blue Bloods (at Coldwell Banker, it is rumored, we bleed blue), and has a wonderful, trusting voice that adds a great texture to the commercial…but the backstory is even better.  You see, Tom’s dad was a vice president at Coldwell Banker for 38 years, and he was the only member of his family that wasn’t in real estate…until now!

We also have a :30 spot on the Value of a Home, and three ;15 spots that talk about some of the things that make a house a home…Kids, Backyards and Pets.  I can personally relate to all of them!

So 3 months ago, I bought a small, dumpy 2nd home down the shore, about 2 miles away from where I grew up in Ventnor.  I never checked the crime stats.  I briefly looked at the appreciation charts for this house and the neighborhood. I paid more attention to how many blocks away from the ocean it was and asked “would we walk or ride bikes to the beach in the summer?”  Did it have a backyard for BBQ’s and hanging out?  Was it close to a Starbucks and the local sub shop, Dino’s?  Was it big enough to have tons of friends and family bunking up on long summer weekends?  The price was good, the interest rate low and for a monthly payment that was the same as a car payment, it was a great deal.  My Coldwell Banker agent, Bracken Markins, was great.  I’m painting it now —  any darn color I want.  I’m fixing what needs to be fixed, and what I can’t fix, I “gotta guy” that can.  My dog is welcome to be there anytime.  I’m going to plant a tree.  My kids will bring their kids here someday in the future. I’m going to fish in the bay A LOT.  My wife and I will grow old there together.

That’s the value of my home. Share yours in the comments and take a look at our new TV ad below that we call “The Value of a Home.”

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A New Look for Finding Home

February 9, 2012
Posted by david_marine in Marketing
1 Comment

A new design for the coldwellbanker.com home page

Today we released a new look for our award winning website, coldwellbanker.com. The home pages has been updated with a much warmer and home-related look than we’ve ever had before. When you visit coldwellbanker.com you’ll notice that when you click on the home search tab or the agent tab the visuals in the background highlight what it is you’re searching for. We’ve also simplified the menu options, updated our highlighted sections and added a few other touches here and there.

It’s kind of like we repainted our entryway, installed some brass hardware to the front door and added a few nice accents from Crate & Barrel to brighten up our main foyer.

This is just the first of a number of changes coming from Coldwell Banker Real Estate in the coming months. Coming in March we’ll unveil what we believe is a significant and timely change in the real estate conversation. More to come, but for now we hope you enjoy this new design for coldwellbanker.com as you look to buy, sell or just dream about that new home.

Here’s to all the things that make a house a home.

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Coldwell Banker Holiday TV Spot – Crowded House

November 21, 2011
Posted by david_marine in Marketing
1 Comment

If you haven’t noticed, the holidays are upon us. In years past, Coldwell Banker has done some unique holiday related advertising. Last year, we created a billboard in Times Square that featured agents and locations with holiday themed names.

This year we partnered with NBC to not only create a holiday themed TV spot, but also advertise on some of the most notable holiday programs. This week, we launch our holiday themed ad which we call “Crowded House.” Our recent survey of consumers showed that 40% of people have more than 15 people living under one roof during the holiday season! As you’ll see in the video below, we played off that concept in what we think is a relatable TV commercial.

In addition, this new ad will be running on the marquee holiday programs on NBC including the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade and the Rockefeller Christmas Tree Lighting  as well as other holiday related programs throughout the  upcoming weeks.

As we reference in an earlier blog post, the holidays bring out a new appreciation for home and it plays a larger role in the memories and the enjoyment of the holiday season. From our home to yours we hope you have a happy holiday season.

Take a look at our holiday ad below and be on the lookout for it this week on NBC.

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Getting More Social with the Facebook “Like” and Google “+1″ Buttons

September 21, 2011
Posted by gustavo_gonzalez in General,Marketing
3 Comments

Here’s the understatement of the year (or perhaps of the last 4 to 5 years!?): Social Media has changed everything. Its changed the way we consume and share information, its changed how we interact with our friends, how we meet friends and it has also fundamentally changed the way companies do business…forever. One would think that with the mind boggling growth of social networking sites over the last few years, that we’d see a leveling off of sorts but all signs point to continued enormous gains. I’m sure that better connected mobile devices in the hands of even more people across the planet have fueled the continued social networking craze. Here are a few stats about how Social Media continues to dominate:

  • Half of all American adults are now on Social Networks. Out of American adults who use the Internet, nearly two-thirds use Social Media sites like Facebook and Twitter (DigitalBuzzBlog)
  • Facebook has over 750 million active users (Facebook)
  • During the average 20 minute period in 2010, there were over 5.8 million wall posts and over 10 million comments posted (DigitalBuzzBlog)
  • Social Networking accounts for 1 in every 6 minutes spent online (Mashable)

We’ve been into “Social” in a big way for the past few years (Sharing, first real estate Facebook app, etc.) and we recently continued to connect our content to what’s going on at Social Media sites by adding the Facebook “Like” button to several places on coldwellbanker.com. With this enhancement, we also became the first (and only) national real estate brand to add the Google “+1″ button across our site as well. The new Social Network boasted well over 25 million active users within less than a month of being in private-beta. So with Google+ opening up to everyone yesterday, we’re sure that consumers will increasingly look to share stuff they find interesting there too.

We’re pretty aware that a great deal of “social-sharing” occurs on the mobile device so we’ve also got Social integrated across all our platforms from our On Location site on over to our iPad and iPhone applications as well. So hop on over to coldwellbanker.com and hit that “Like” or “+1” button on the homepage or on the properties, agents, offices or type of “search” (Lifestyle and BlueScape) that you find interesting.

We’ve got a few other new cool Social Media related enhancements coming soon so be sure to stay on the lookout!

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Coldwell Banker Presents: The Truth! Episode 2 – Washington

July 25, 2011
Posted by gustavo_gonzalez in General,Marketing
Comments Off

The Truth!

As we learned last week, there are a vast number of misconceptions in the world that have for some reason become accepted as valid truths! So with the help of Funny or Die and Canadian funnyman Alan Thicke, we attempted to chisel away at a few of these puzzling myths with the launch of The Truth! series.

The first episode of The Truth! shocked the world when it was revealed that bulls are not driven to uncontrollable fits of rage and anger by the color red (surprising I know). Today we continue in our quest to uncover The Truth! by launching the second episode in the series on funnyordie.com.

The second installment of the series shifts our focus back to the 18th century and to the very start of our nation, with a look at one of America’s founding fathers George Washington. There are many myths that surround our nation’s first president, but today we dig into the archives and ask the age old question, “Did George Washington have wooden teeth?”. The truth…may just shock you.

Enjoy this week’s episode and be sure to tune in next Monday for the final video in The Truth series with Funny or Die and Alan Thicke!

 

The Truth: Washington – watch more funny videos
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Coldwell Banker Gets Featured by AdMob for New Tablet Ads

May 26, 2011
Posted by david_marine in Marketing
Comments Off

A month or so ago, we were approached about doing a new type of tablet ad with adMob that allowed us to feature video and showcase our brand in one of their tablet-focused ad units. We had already launched our iAd for iPad and had seen the value and potential growth in tablet advertising, so we jumped at the chance to try it out.

The results are coming in and we’re pleased to say that it’s showing some real growth. The ad unit we did with adMob featured our great Coldwell Banker iPad app promo video (which is one of my favorite videos to have worked on!) and drives consumers to download the Coldwell Banker iPad app.

Today adMob sent out a press release touting this new platform and put together a promotional video to showcase two marquee ads that were running at launch. One ad was for the movie Thor, and the other was the Coldwell Banker iPad app ad.

Take a look for yourself at the video below to see how the Coldwell Banker tablet ad looks. As tablet adoption continues to grow at a record pace, you can be sure Coldwell Banker will continue to find ways to market our customer’s listings and agents’ services on this unique platform.

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New Coldwell Banker Real Estate TV Spot

May 17, 2011
Posted by mike_fischer in Marketing
1 Comment

The new Coldwell Banker ® TV spot (Wrong Decisions) is out the door and on air for about a month, and I have to say, I’m pretty pumped!

First and foremost, I think we nailed the right message for the times…everyday it seems, the media is saying either we’ve turned the corner or uh oh, home sales and prices are slipping again.  People are confused.  That’s why we have the Trusted Agents, outfitted with the Right Tools, to help  you make Smarter Decisions.  Then add a really small house, the sinking house, the mirror house, the asteroid house and of course the airplane, because it never hurts to add a little humor to the mix, even with something as serious as buying or selling a home.

So can we back this up?  Yes we can…

Trusted Agents…We are the nation’s oldest national real estate company, founded  in the ashes of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake.  Our Founder, Colbert Coldwell, established the company to try and create order from the chaos the earthquake left behind in the local real estate market.  For 105 years we have been helping people find the home or property of their dreams, and today, we are known, among many things, to be the best for our expertise to sell a home quickly and for top dollar (internal research).  Other research studies show that trust is one of keywords associated with our brand, both from an agent and consumer perspective.  We have great agents and broker owners that make up our global network of real estate professionals.  My boss, Jim Gillespie, is the trusted resource on TV when business news needs the real scoop on the real estate market.

Right Tools…we were the first national brand with a website, first with an iPhone and Droid app, the best real estate channel on YouTube based on number of videos uploaded, quality of videos and ease of search from the YT platform.  We also just launched an iPad app that is the first to incorporate video in any meaningful way, and more is on the way.  We are the only two time Innovator of the Year award winner from Inman, our industry’s version of the Mashables.  Oh yeah, we were also a finalist in 2009 for a Mashable award.  There’s more, but not enough time in this post…These tools allow you as a consumer to find the info you need quickly and on the screens you prefer.  We also have a ton of back office tools that make our agents more efficient and productive.

Smarter Decisions…that’s what it’s all about today.  If you are buying or selling a home, there are so many decisions to make along the way that can affect not only how much you will enjoy that new home of your dreams, but how well positioned are you financially in the short and long term?  Between finding the right listing price to balancing time on market with sale price, getting  mortgage and inspection support, avoiding the “wrong house” when shopping, having the right negotiating strategy and offer price, etc…   There are a lot of events  along the way when buying or selling a home for things to not turn out so great, so you need someone that you can trust to help you through the process.

One of our agents did a client testimonial video and it inspired us to make this commercial.    The link is here.  Basically, these young first time buyers  were happy that they had Evan and Coldwell Banker on their side of the table, because as they say, “it’s a BIG DECISION”…

Enjoy the spot and I hope we are on your side of the table the next time you are buying or selling a home.  More importantly, don’t find yourself on the other side of the table from us!

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Introducing the Coldwell Banker iAd for iPhone

May 11, 2011
Posted by david_marine in Marketing
3 Comments

Barely a month ago, Coldwell Banker set another real estate industry first by being the first real estate brand to work with Apple in creating an iAd unit for the iPad. For those not familiar with what an iAd is it’s a unique advertising unit only available through Apple’s iOs that allows advertisers to turn a mobile ad into an “app within an app” by serving up a unique functionality and experience within the app the ad is running on. Something that is unseen in other mobile ad units.

The Coldwell Banker iAd for iPad has already seen some success. We’re finding that the iAd units are drawing more consumer interaction than you’d ever find on a standard banner ad as people are interacting with our iAd for over a minute at a time. Not only that but click thru rates and conversion rates are making standard banners look like child’s play.

We’ve come to the conclusion that the iAd is allowing us to do things in our mobile advertising that you can’t replicate elsewhere. So today, we’ve added an iAd for the iPhone to the mix, and it just so happens to also be Apple’s 100th iAd. This iAd is different from the iPad version and it focuses on helping consumers find a home for sale that meets their needs right within our iAd unit. Consumers can even call an agent right from the iAd to get more details on a property.

Below are some images of how our iPhone iAd looks and you’ll find it running within popular iPhone apps like Huffington Post, Weather Channel and many others. You can also test the iAd for iPhone for yourself if you have an iPhone. Just download the iAd Gallery app and you’ll see the Coldwell Banker iAd featured there.

We’re excited to see how this new iAd unit performs as we know that more and more people are using their mobile device to search for a home. And while you’re taking a look at our iAd feel free to download the Coldwell Banker iPhone app to take your search for a home even further.

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Coldwell Banker On Location Gets an Upgrade

May 3, 2011
Posted by david_marine in Marketing
Comments Off

It’s been two years since we launched Coldwell Banker On Location, our official YouTube channel and the predominant destination for real estate video on YouTube. We’ve hit a number of milestones like 1 million visits in the first year, 2 million visits before the 2nd anniversary, becoming a Mashable Open Web Awards finalist, nominated for an Inman Innovator award, etc. etc. etc.

But today we’ve launched a significant upgrade to how you search for videos on YouTube. Our updated search unit (see below) now gives you the ability to search for any listing video using the criteria of your choosing. We’ve added the ability to search by price, beds, baths, and even MLS number and be taken right to the videos you’re looking for.

There’s also a list search for those who don’t want to browse by map. And of course we’ve got international search as well (you have to check out some of the videos of places in Dubai!). As a recent post on Mashable stated, 73% of home sellers are more likely to list with an agent that will produce a video for their home, and the one place where you guaranteed to find the most property videos is Coldwell Banker On Location. Take it for a test drive and see for yourself.

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