Another day, another smartly produced video advert for a property portal tugging the heartstrings and riffing on the meaning of ‘home’. This time it’s Southeast Asian portal giant iProperty that has produced a video named “We are what makes Malaysia” in which it asks several diverse employees what home means to them.
The video is another clear demonstration that property portal marketing departments around the world are zooming in on the idea that since lockdowns around the world brought on by the coronavirus pandemic, the idea of what home means to people is changing. The name of the game for portal marketers this autumn is most definitely ‘pathos’, and we have seen several similar efforts over the last few weeks, notably from Zoopla and Navent, which aim to appeal to viewer emotions and inspire a reflection of whether their current home is all that they might want it to be.
Elsewhere in portal advertising campaigns, we have recently seen market leaders from Germany and Australia focus on sellers and seek to portray advertising on market-leading portals as the sensible option. Realestate.com.au’s recent TV campaign seeks to make fun of ‘off-market’ advertising, whereas ImmoScout24’s ad highlights the portal’s broker network as the best way to sell a house in Germany.