For Homely, It's More Than Real Estate

Australian property portal Homely.com.au has launched a new brand marketing campaign.

The country’s largest industry-backed portal is promoting its ‘More than real estate’ message through an extensive nationwide, multi-channel promotion that includes radio, out-of-home media and paid social channels.

The goal, it says, is to highlight the portal’s value proposition which is to make the home buying process easier for people looking to find a perfect place to call home.

Some of the products it features include suburb and street reviews from real locals, local community discussions and a local real estate agent finder.

The campaign also spotlights some of the portals new digital products, including new alerts and collections features, and the ability for users to rate and share their favourite properties with friends and family.

Homely’s Head of Marketing, Amanda Kramer, said: “There’s never been a more exciting and yet daunting time to buy property in Australia. The process of finding that ‘perfect’ home isn’t always easy for a myriad of reasons. What sets Homely apart in the industry is something we love singing about. Our business is genuinely designed to help make it easier for people to find their perfect next home.”

Homely is the third-ranked property portal in Australia, and provides some much-needed competition in Australia’s online real estate industry. As the portal continues to grow, it says consumer awareness is key.

Kramer added: “We’ve been operating since 2014, but we’re a new brand when it comes to our property-seeking consumers.”

She confirmed that the goal for the campaign is to kickstart some momentum through impact, reach and frequency.

“We made our brand assets more distinctive, then we worked with some fantastic media partners to find high impact opportunities that reached our ideal audience segment as often as we could,” she said.

With most Australia capital cities in lockdown during the industry’s busiest time of the year, the traditional spring selling period looked very different around the country.

In Victoria, one of Homely’s largest territories, inspections were not permitted at all, while in New South Wales inspections were restricted to one-on-ones only. Homely used this state-based fragmentation to trial a bolder media strategy, underpinned by digital investment to drive awareness for those stuck at home.

Queensland emerged from lockdown earlier and was selected for out-of-home media and radio partnerships to capture people on the go.

Kramer added: “This campaign was designed to hit the right audience at the right time, and we put a lot into our targeting to do this. We worked closely with our media partners to achieve the results we were after.”

Kramer confirmed that the portal is already seeing great results for the campaign, including increases in enquiries, earned media and an uplift in user generated content submissions on the site.

“Nationally, we worked to a targeted, relevant digital approach that erred on the side of native and matched our audience needs.” she added.

Adam Spencer, Chief Executive Officer and co-Founder of Homely said, “We’re excited for this next phase of growth in the business. Our proposition is strong and we have a number of products in the pipeline to continue to support our position as a force for good in the industry.”

“Our new positioning ‘More than Real Estate’ is a proud reflection of our value proposition, our enduring commitment to our customers and users, and ultimately is what pushes us every day to constantly challenge the industry standard. We’re just getting started.”