The Insider: Issue 029
It’s 2022 (2020 too? Two thousand twenty two?). All the cookies are gone. The gift wrap is on its way to the recycling plant. And it’s time to dive head first into year three of a pandemic. We’re here for it.
Last Week This Week
- Redfin issued a study on inflation’s effect on consumers’ real estate plans. The bottom line: people are confused. The number of people “moving up” their buying or selling plans due to inflation is about the same as the number of people delaying their buying or selling plans due to inflation. Seems like more brokers and agents should be talking/educating around this. A wide open space for thought leadership.
- Bloomberg Businessweek published a piece “The National Association of Realtors is Sorry About All the Discrimination,” that (among other things) illuminates just how complex are the challenges facing the NAR at this moment in time. 2022 could be the most significant, and perilous, year in the trade org’s history.
- Zillow released a feature that enables people to browse homes together, using an iPhone or iPad’s SharePlay feature (basically it’s Facetime with screen sharing built in). This is notable because home search UX has been pretty much fully baked for years now, and novel features are rare. It’s also worth noting that numerous “collaborative search” apps have come and gone in the last decade — but these were pre-ZoomLife, and, according to Zillow, 86% of its users now browse with a friend, spouse, partner, etc. So this feels significant.
Have You Heard About This?
Online Advertising’s Wormhole
The Association of National Advertisers is investigating how advertisers can eliminate waste in the programmatic media marketplace after learning that 70%, or approximately $140 billion in online advertising spend never touches a human being. Where does all that money go? We can only guess ad fees, fraud, and a whole bunch of stuff no one understands. Evidently, it’s all become so insanely complex that no one knows where the money goes anymore. Hopefully, this investigation, led by PwC, will shed some light. Our favorite Ad Contrarian has written about the absurd complexities that exist today here.
Agent Pulse
So, look, if you’re like us, you’ve read all manner of 2022 real estate prediction stuff. We’re not gonna add to the pile. But we did want to get a high-level read on the “agent street” headed into the new year.
So we asked our panel of 600+ agents across the country one simple question:
"How do you see 2022 shaping up for your business?"
Agents are an optimistic lot. But this response does remind us of a basic fact: Several million homes will be sold in 2022; the only question is who will do the selling.
Inspiration Point
How Do You Tune This Thing?
Just when you may be feeling like you’ve run out of ideas, this guy builds a guitar out of 36 packs of Ramen noodles. Creativity is endless. And don’t ever let anyone make you think there’s only one way to do things.
Simplicity FTW
ββββThe human brain has three main imperatives known as the “motivational triad” — seek pleasure, avoid pain, conserve energy. All are used in effective marketing in ways you notice everywhere once you see it. The third one, conserve energy, is at the root of why simplicity matters. We have an actual physiological need for things to not be complicated, and it’s why an overly complicated benefit or marketing message never works. Global brand agency, Siegel+Gale, highlights in a recent study how brands that make life simpler for people scored highest with consumers during the pandemic. “The brands that topped this list simplified not only the consumption experience; they simplified the human experience,” said Howard Belk, co-CEO-Chief Creative Officer of Siegel+Gale. In real estate, there’s been a race to “simplify” home buying and selling for decades. It’s still pretty complicated. Maybe it’s not up to one company to fix this problem, though. Maybe it can start with each of us by simplifying what we can — our message, communications, marketing, expectations, product, service, etc. Read on for more about the brand survey.
Quote of the week
"All ad campaigns are branding campaigns. Whether you intend it to be a branding campaign is irrelevant. It will create an impression of your brand regardless of your intent."
— Bob Hoffman
