How to use the power of storytelling in the real estate sector
A CBRE case story
There are only so many different ways you can describe the technical characteristics of an apartment or the number of supermarkets that are nearby. Still, the large majority of the Dutch real estate sector seems to be unable to transcend sheer functionality when they market housing projects. For CBRE Nederland, we therefore decided to turn the tables and chose a wholly different approach to building a relationship with the audience. The result? Ada.
Storytelling and the audience
The key to differentiating as well as tackling the challenges of CBRE laid in storytelling. Besides building a meaningful story, it was equally important to know the audience and what makes them tick. By shouting into an abyss you won’t fill a single apartment and you won’t build a network for future projects. Story and audience became an intertwined duo that needed to learn from each other. By building the story, testing it and seeing how and where an audience responds, Ada became an exercise in adaptability and learning.
What’s in a name?
That exercise started with the name, Ada. A fictitious character, nicknamed ‘Mother of the Omval’ (the specific area), who was born and bred at the shores of the Amstel near to where the new residents would be. She had her own cafe called ‘De Rafelrand’ and in the 50s, 60s and 70s the whole neighbourhood would meet her there for a beer and some good advice. Despite the toughness of the area, she stood for harmony, coming together and celebrating everyone’s unique individuality. And that’s exactly what the new apartments and inhabitants represent. Ada thus became a story about the neighbourhood and the power of community. A story which they can literally become part of.
A poetic vehicle
The next step in crafting the story is finding an original, appealing and versatile vehicle. For this we stepped into the shoes of Amsterdam legends like Vondel, Bloem and Campert and created a poem honouring the neighbourhood.
The poem is about the distortion and loneliness of the city centre, the old and the new coming together in the Amstelkwartier and the opportunity to start a new life with people from all walks of life. It’s this poem that subsequently was taken by photographer Marjolein van der Klaauw to discover this area and capture the visual representation for the project.
And it was the same poem that was taken by legendary Amsterdam rapper Def-P to read as the voice-over of a powerful Ada video, inviting everybody into this neighborhood.
Match the mean to the audience
Using a fresh identity and website, a pinpointed social media presence and a smart print campaign, we started telling the story to the audience. By using municipality data, customer profiles by CBRE and incoming results from Facebook and Google Analytics, target audience profiles were made and adjusted along the way, highlighting age, gender, mean income, professional backgrounds and geographical locations. These profiles were then used to create means specifically for them. A Boomerang card campaign in the cafes they visit. Social posts targeted in the areas they live. And reverse graffiti in busy traffic intersections they cross with their bike, reminding them that there is a neighborhood in Amsterdam with room to breathe.
By thinking creatively on the relationship between story and audience, Ada became a unique project. The appealing, original and versatile approach not only built a network that assures quality tenants for future projects, it also worked as a boost for the neighborhood as such. Ada gave CBRE the structure with which they can communicate and market their future real estate projects in a fresh and effective way.
Want to know more about this project? Ask our strategist Jens!
