Jul 14, 2009
Community Generated Marketing?
Okay, so with the comic book discussion sure to be going on (who knew there were so many comics geeks in the RE.net?), let me turn to something I think could be very interesting. First, view this video:
This is a music video by the trance dance group OceanLab. But it was edited from videos submitted by OceanLab’s fans. From the YouTube description:
In November last year Above & Beyond launched a competition offering fans the chance to create the next OceanLab music video for “On A Good Day”. Jono, Tony & Paavo were overwhelmed with the quality and creativity of the entries and the official video has been made using the highlights from the best entries.
The resulting video is beguiling. Of course, it doesn’t hurt that the track itself is haunting and beautiful.
Where my mind goes wandering is… is this sort of community-created marketing possible, especially in real estate?
Beyond the Amateur and the Professional
I looked at why the OceanLab video was so compelling to me. I think it has something to do with how it transcends the traditional categories of “amateur” and “professional” video that I wrote about here. Normally, when I watch a music video, I expect a truly polished, amazing, professionally directed work of art. This classic might serve as a good example:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=8787452113268513375
If the music video falls short of that sort of professionalism, I (along with many other consumers) simply dismiss it as “teh suck”.
OceanLab, however, does something unexpected by using amateur footage, but professionally edited. There is no question that some professional video editor took hundreds or thousands of hours of tape, and edited all the footage together to create something that combines the artistry of the professional with the humanity of the amateur.
In fact, some of the amateur footage is good enough to be professional — and was likely shot by professional videographers. Some of the time-lapse photography stuff is quite amazing. Other footage carries excellent composition, camera work, and lighting. Meanwhile, other footage is clearly home video — a girl singing to a camera, a handheld of a roller coaster ride, a birthday party, friends dancing with each other.
Can This Work in Real Estate?
Brokers and agents are fairly obsessed with marketing in real estate — as they should be, since they are seen first and foremost as marketers of properties. Some companies spend enormous sums creating beautiful brochures, flyers, websites, virtual tours, and video pieces to market listings. Many are successful, while many others fall flat.
Why not try to engage and energize the local community?
What would the description of a listing look like if it were written by neighbors? What pictures would someone who knew the family take of a house? What if the homeowner and the listing broker decided to hand out Flip cameras to every person who stopped by for an Open House and collected that footage together, then had it professionally edited?
Rather than putting together a”Local Neighborhood Guide” like this (awfully designed) one from Seattle, why not ask the residents what they would tell someone who was interested in moving to the neighborhood? That could be a series of blog posts, a series of video clips, whatever. Maybe it’s a Flickr stream of all local neighborhood photos; maybe it’s a Facebook group of local residents all talking about the neighborhood, the schools, the local government, whatever.
Is this even a possibility?
How could such creativity and energy be tapped and unleashed for real estate?
-rsh
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