Guerilla marketing
By Matt Carter, Thursday, January 3, 2008.Bookmarking Sites
The bright orange polyester plush toys pictured here come to Inman News from China, courtesy of the folks at HomeGain.
"Behind the cute and cuddly nature of this critter is a profound message for real estate agents to 'stop monkeying around' and fight the effects of a challenging market with HomeGain's help,' " each Inman staff member who received one was informed in a letter from company execs.
We could just do what we usually do when promo stuff like this arrives -- ignore it and go about our daily business. But instead of a "see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil" approach, I thought it would be interesting to hear from readers whether you think HomeGain will get much mileage out of this campaign.
Last year, I was somewhat appalled when a well-known company that provides fraud detection services for mortgage lenders sent us fortune cookies with slogans like "Confucius say: Loans to crooks/Make problems with books."
At least HomeGain is not likely to offend anybody with its new campaign (Isn't the first rule of marketing, "First, do no harm?" Or is that some other profession?). Stuffed animals do seem to be the rage this year. Here's where these guys came from if you want to jump on this trend.
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Submitted by Anonymous on January 3, 2008 - 7:10pm.
Talk about "receive and tell"! :-)
Matt - I love your "hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil" photo
I am happy we used gorillas with out fingers as I could only imagine what might have appeared.
Submitted by Anonymous on January 3, 2008 - 8:19pm.
I was at NAR and witnessed the hysteria these gorillas caused! People absolutely loved them and were actually upset to win a GPS system....and tried trading with others to get their hands on these gorillas! The line at the HomeGain booth stretched around the EXPO twice!
Yes, monkeying around seems a bit silly for a marketing ploy...but we ARE talking about it...and so was everyone else at NAR LV! I think their Guerilla Marketing tactics may just pay off!
Submitted by Anonymous on January 3, 2008 - 11:06pm.
I thought the gorillas at NAR were great. I spent all my time in the trade show while I was there and the Homegain booth had the biggest line...everyone wanted one! I'm a big believer in unique marketing. The more different the marketing than anyone else, the more you stick out. As said above, people are still talking about the gorillas! For me though, I prefer to monkey around. It seems the more I monkey around, the more business I get. It must be in the fun of it all!
Submitted by Anonymous on January 4, 2008 - 8:45am.
Do not monkey around and get those apes tested for lead. You never know where the next poison attack from China will come from. ;-)
Submitted by Anonymous on January 4, 2008 - 9:43am.
I say why not, it's fun and works for both of its audiences (consumers and Realtors)! From a marketing perspective, it's good to test everything. I've seen business cards of agents with their dogs or horse, and that's all I'll say about that. HomeGain's never had a mascot before. Look out Reply!, your exclamation mark man might have some competition at the next tradeshow ;-)
Submitted by Anonymous on January 4, 2008 - 9:54am.
Very interesting!
I didn't get a gorilla - I just saw them from a distance - so I didn't get the whole gorilla experience. Looks good to me, though. If it's getting noticed and commented on, I'd say that it worked.
Submitted by Anonymous on January 4, 2008 - 10:16am.
I would have loved to have seen all the smiley faces of the kids that got one of HomeGain's gorillas on Christmas. My only regret is I wish we had more of them to give away so that everyone who wanted one could have one!
Submitted by Anonymous on January 4, 2008 - 11:47am.
As one of the NAR organizers for HomeGain, I was an early skeptic of the monkeys."No way people would want a stuffed monkey" I thought. That all vanished within 2 minutes of the show being open as a line of monkey obsessed Realtors stretched around the booth...and stayed there for four days. Some of the more interesting monkey moments from NAR:One of our GPS winners offered to trade his grand prize for a family of four monkeys; the poor agent from Oregon who spent three hours in line after dozens of unsuccessful attempts to win (only to come back again the following day and try again)and the passerby that offered $100 to get two monkeys for his grandkids(don't worry, we didnt take it). To say the least, they were a major hit.
Submitted by Anonymous on January 4, 2008 - 12:13pm.
OK, there seems to be a consensus that the monkey was a huge hit as a promotional item. It seems the only way to top it might be to give away GPS-equipped plush toys.
We are told the monkey will also star in a new ad (click on link below).
http://www.inmanwiki.com/images/b/b9/Homegainadvert.jpg
My first reaction was: "Is the monkey going to do the valuation? Or is the monkey upset because his home is worth 15 percent less than it was last year, and he has an adjustable-rate mortgage that is about to reset?"
Submitted by Anonymous on January 4, 2008 - 12:40pm.
WOW! Once again we witness the level of intellect of real estate agents (or lack thereof), that they go nuts over a $1 polyester monkey made in a Chinese sweat shop. Yeah! Great Marketing!
Submitted by Anonymous on January 4, 2008 - 5:19pm.
Well, the gorillas have people talking so they must be on to something. The goal of this type of marketing campaign is to generate buzz, and clearly they've accomplished that.