New York-based brokerage Douglas Elliman has debuted a new ad campaign with a little help from a few of its own celebrity and influencer real estate agents.
Dozens of the brokerage’s celebrity and influencer agents — like Fredrik Eklund, The Altman Brothers and Tracy Tutor, all of whom have appeared on Bravo’s Million Dollar Listing — will start to promote the campaign on Instagram using the hashtag #TheNextMoveIsYours, as of Wednesday.
“They embody the DNA of an Elliman agent,” Scott Durkin, president and COO of Douglas Elliman, told Inman. “We thought that it would be smart for them because they know our brand, they’re proud of the brand, and they wear the brand well.”
“And for us, you couldn’t buy anything stronger than that,” Durkin added. “We had that right at home, so we decided to [launch with that].” Then, starting on March 15th, a multimedia campaign created in partnership with global advertising agency Grey will launch across streaming video, digital, print newspapers and magazines, social media and outdoor advertising platforms.
As buyers remain enthusiastic amid a period of record-low mortgage rates, and gain confidence with a vaccine rollout underway, the brokerage thought now was the perfect time to encourage buyer excitement, Stephanie Garbarini, senior vice president of marketing at Douglas Elliman, told Inman. The campaign aims to showcase to buyers that the possibilities are endless when it comes to working with the brokerage.
Stephanie Garbarini | Credit: Douglas Elliman
“[The idea is that] if Elliman can find these properties, imagine what our agents can find for their customers,” Durkin said in a press statement.
As the notion of what luxury means has shifted over the course of the pandemic to include things like access to the outdoors and space for a home gym or home office, the company feels the ad campaign also addresses how they’re working to meet the new needs of their clients.
“I think personalization has dramatically shifted since last March, but the great news is that I feel that Douglas Elliman has always been in the business of understanding personal needs,” Garbarini told Inman. “So this campaign really celebrates that everyone is very unique and we want to find what’s unique and right for the person that’s looking.”
With its wide reach, and promotion from agents, Douglas Elliman anticipates the ad campaign to achieve about 40 million impressions. Back in March, the company underwent a rebrand with Grey’s assistance, which is also when they unveiled the brand’s new tagline, “The Next Move is Yours.”
Scott Durkin | Photo credit: Douglas Elliman
“What we liked about Grey so much was that they said that we need to protect the legacy of Elliman, and all you really needed was a refresh and a tagline,” Durkin said of the rebrand. “And that was pretty telling for us because we did a lot of focus groups and we got a lot of feedback, and it’s a wonderful brand, and we realized that we just needed to sort of tweak it and refresh it and make it modern.”
The campaign rollout will be conducted across all markets the brokerage services, including Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, Long Island, and the Hamptons; as well as North Fork, Westchester, and Putnam Counties; Connecticut, Florida, California, Colorado, Massachusetts, and Texas. Noteworthy places the ads will appear include on streaming platform Hulu, the Hampton Jitney bus service and in the Palm Beach International Airport.
