Last Friday at Transparent Real Estate, I discussed how real estate marketing is still done using the mass marketing approach - mass mailings, bus stop signage, etc. - even at the local level. There are more efficient ways to reach your potential customer...

Back to mass marketing... I've always been intrigued with the ultimate Realtor marketing vehicle - grocery shopping carts. You never see any other profession plastering their faces (usually with a pet in tow) on these utilitarian vehicles. Sometimes they make a subliminal impression, sometimes they provoke a "whoever thought this up?" reaction and point out that these carts and their ads fall into an image of disrepair as homeless luggage bins or just trashed in vacant lots.

Here's another grocery advertising idea that deserves criticism - plastering ads on those grocery conveyor belts. These belts always have wet spots that seems like pools of contaminants; I imagine leaking blood from those packaged steaks... so who would want to have their brand name faces associated with grocery detritus? And have your potential customer become dizzy and irritated trying to see your phone number after they've placed their milk carton on top of it?

--Pat Kitano, Transparent Real Estate

I'm a car nut, as all my friends know. A few nights ago, two of my friends each forwarded a new commercial/video that Shell made to celebrate the 60th anniversary of working with Ferrari. My friends were too late, as I had already seen it linked on an Internet forum for Miatas. I later found it on a couple of other automotive forums. Thursday night, the lo-res YouTube version, published just a day before, had 8,000 views. By Sunday morning, it had been seen over 100,000 times.  I can only imagine how many times the high resolution version* has been seen, it's the one that was emailed to me. Whether they intended it or not, Shell has a bona fide viral campaign on it's hands.

Okay, this isn't a typical "viral" effort. In fact, I imagine filming historic F1 race cars as they blast through the city streets of Rome, New York, Sydney, Hong Kong, Rio, and Monaco may very well add up to the most expensive commercial ever produced.  Still, the commercial got me thinking about marketing.

For all the advertising money a real estate agent can spend on driving traffic to their web site, I think much of that money would be better spent on developing a web site that gets others to drive traffic for you. Maybe it's a blog, or maybe not. the key is that it needs to be something of more value than a online brochure with some listings linked. A local internet forum could be an idea, maybe comprehensive directory of business and services in a neighborhood. Let the brainstorming begin.

The popularity of this video leverages a racing fan's love of Ferrari to the benefit of Shell. Real Estate Agents can look at what's great about the markets they work in and create the same leverage.

*you may need to right-click and "save target as" to view

--Todd Carpenter, Lenderama

Punctuated equilibrium is a theory of evolutionary biology that accounts for leaps in evolution (as opposed to very gradual change). "Species evolve slowly but once in awhile (there is) a huge event like a meteor drops into the ocean and everything changes" -- often in unexpected ways, said Barry Parr, a media analyst for Jupiter Research.

Parr, who spoke Wednesday during a local-search Internet conference in Silicon Valley, said he can't predict when the next "meteor" strike will prompt change in the way people search for local information online, though he predicted that the impact will be ... unpredictable. "Making assumptions about what it's going to look like in the next five years based on what's happened in the last five years is always a mistake."

Greg Sterling, founder of the Sterling Market Intelligence consulting firm, noted that the rise of MySpace and Google are among the examples of meteoric, radical-change events on the Internet.

Searches for local information are not a perfect science on the Web, nor are they likely to be, Parr said. "We're not going to be able to systematize it ... really what we're talking about are people's lives. It's sloppy, it's messy, it's confusing, it's turbulent. There's no Web page for it. You can't contain this in a page."

Even so, folks are spending a lot of time, energy and money trying to figure out this whole local-search thing -- and trying to be the next meteor. The direction and pace of this is important to the real estate industry, as real estate professionals are the feet on the street in neighborhoods across America. Location, location ... you know the rest.

Some San Francisco Bay Area homeowners have received a letter that appears to be a personal note from a man named Alan Jackson.

The letter appears to be handwritten but on closer inspection is actually a computer-printed script with the homeowners' names and address written by hand (to lend an oh-so personal touch?).

"Hi (your name here). My name is Alan. I am interested in buying your home located at: (your address here). If you'd consider selling it, please call me at 510-725-2064. Thank you, Alan Jackson."

No, Alan Jackson is not a licensed real estate agent, according to the guy who answered the phone (Alan was not available). "He is a private real estate investor," the phone-answerer said. Could this be the same Alan: Alan Jackson Properties in Berkeley?

The address on the envelope is 2342 Shattuck Ave. #229 in Berkeley, Calif. -- it's an address for a mailbox in a UPS Store. Seems like a shadowy profile for someone who wants to buy your house.

Realtors in Texas can buy custom license plates that state, "I am a Texas Realtor" and carry the slogan: "Working for you."
A set of plates cost $30 plus the amount of the regular registration fee. There is an annual renewal cost of $30 and an extra $40 charge to personalize the plates.

It's for a cause -- $22 of the proceeds from the sales go toward the Texas Association of Realtors Housing Opportunity Foundation that promotes affordable housing in the state.

Sorry, Realtor wannabes. "The plate is not available to other member classes of the association; nor is it available to real estate agents and brokers who are not Realtors."

If I were to write TV ad copy for National Deed Service, here's how the script might go (read this in the voice of the announcer for the classic Ronco ads):

Announcer: "How much would YOU pay for a copy of a certified deed to your house -- the legal document that protects your right to use and enjoy your property? $100? $200 or more? Before you answer, consider that to obtain this document yourself, you might have to travel miles to a regional governmental record keeping center, stand in long lines, talk to bureaucrats, and pay processing fees. Just parking your car could cost you $20! THE HUMANITY! National Deed Service takes care of the whole process for you. Just fill out a simple form, and you'll receive your certified deed in the mail within 30 days! That's all there is to it! And how much would YOU expect to pay for this service? Not $100, not $90 -- what? Oh ... (voice falters slightly) well yes, maybe $89.50 depending on where you live. Or for as little as, $69.50, or even $59.50 in some areas if you act NOW."

Announcer continues at double speed: "National Deed Service and its affiliated companies, including California Record Retrieval Inc., Illinois Deed Provider Inc., Nevada Deed Provider Inc. and Florida Record Retrieval are not affiliated with any government agency. Many government records are available free or at a nominal cost from government agencies. National Deed Service is owned by licensed real estate broker Barry J. Isaacson and registered in Illinois. Please do not attempt to visit the Washington D.C. mailing address listed in the offer which is a virtual office provided by Regus Group Network."

"Spectacular Jet Liner Views." Is this something you'd expect to see promoted in a property description? Perhaps pilots will dig it, and at least it doesn't say, "Spectacular jet engine noise."

The $1.83 million home on Mulholland Drive in Los Angeles is also described as a "stunning architectural set on a private drive with sensational jetliner views through walls of glass."

It must be a Southern California thing. A $750,000 two-bedroom condo with views of the Hollywood Hills features "spectacular jet liner views from every room," according to the description ... and that property has been sold.

You can build branding ... or brand buildings.

A series of workshops is focused on a "branded architecture boom" in New York City -- which relates to the conveyance of image and status for a project through marketing efforts.

Anna Klingmann, former professor of architecture at Cornell University and author of "Brandscapes: Architecture in the Experience Economy," is presenting the panel at the third installment of this "Brandism" series, which will be held at the American Institute of Architects Center for Architecture on March 28.

"Over the course of just a few years, 'brand architecture' has become the standard in residential design and development," Klingmann said in an announcement about the upcoming panel. "In the current sales environment, great design, innovative amenities, a unique brand identity and community outreach strategies are the best way to increase the dollar value of a project."

The six part Brandism series "is designed to encourage candid discussion of brand architecture, which first transformed the retail world with flagship stores such as NikeTown, BMW World and Prada and has since become the mandate for residential real estate development in New York City."

The phenomenon is not unique to that city though, as developers of some high-profile residential projects in Miami, Los Angeles and Las Vegas (among other cities) have also sought to create a brand for residential projects, using celebrity names and endorsements, and big-name designers to boost sales. (See Inman News article: "Celebrities try to make a name in real estate.")

The upcoming panel will be hosted by Michael Sorkin, an architect and author, and a panel of architectural and design professionals who worked on such projects as "497 Greenwich Street," "The Promenade Project," "High Line redevelopment in Chelsea," and "Blue," a 16-story residential condo project.

Seems that adding video to your web site is all the fashion these days. CNN calls this phenomena "the 'YouTubing' of real estate marketing" and says:

Today, if your site doesn't offer virtual tours, mapping technology, neighborhood guides and a video library of buying and selling tips, it's nowhere.

There's no doubt that adding video to your listings is far more impactful than a stodgy old 360 virtual tour. Sites like YouTube and the underlying technology it's built on, Flash, have removed any hurdles that may have previously prevented you from streaming video from your Web site.

That said, video is no magic bullet and doesn't come without its own challenges; production quality and streaming quality issues plague many real estate videos and there's a big difference between simply stringing static images together Ken Burns style and a professionally shot and edited video production.

But, if you're not already thinking about how you can take advantage of video in your marketing efforts, you should. This is a fad that's not going away.

Joel Burslem - Future of Real Estate Marketing

Advertising Age, a sister publication to Crain's Chicago Business, reports that newspaper real estate ad sales grew to a total $4.6 billion on the wings of a prolonged housing boom, up from about $2.6 billion a decade earlier. And revenue continued to grow for the past two years, accounting for about 8 percent of newspaper revenue.

But in January major publishers including Tribune Co., McClatchy Co. and Lee Enterprises began to post real estate ad declines, according to the report.

"A lot of the Realtors we talk to tell us the only reason they keep advertising (in newspapers) is that their clients expect to see the ad in the paper," and the greatest threat to newspapers are Web sites with property listings content, said Jim Townsend, a principal at Classified Intelligence ad consultancy, in the report.

Charlie Diederich, vice president of classified advertising for the Newspaper Association of America, said in the article that the growth spurt in newspapers' real estate advertising will likely end this year, and "If we don't find a new growth area, Wall Street is going to keep beating us up."

According to a 2006 survey by media research firm Borrell Associates Inc., the online share of real estate advertising is expected to eclipse newspapers' advertising share and top $3 billion by the year 2010 -- growing from a 3.5 percent share in 2001 to an expected 32.1 percent share in 2006 (see Inman News report).

What's up for debate is whether newspapers are experiencing the beginning of a down cycle in real estate advertising that will rebound with the next housing boom, or whether there is an irreversible shift of ad spending in the works.