There’s been a great discussion in the comments of the original post and thanks to all who commented!
While there were some diverse opinions, the general consensus was the ad could be dramatically improved.

Find the 5 Mistakes - Click to Enlarge

It has… forever.

Why This Matters

The ad for the exercise represents two properties with an asking price of nearly $4 million each. In order for these properties to sell, someone is going to have to extract a worth of $4 million in perceived value from the property. They are going to have to be convinced and make an emotional connection that the property is worth $4 million. What makes this extremely challenging is that the pool for buyers at a multi-million dollar price point is extremely shallow and the pool for $4 million homes is extremely deep. Plenty of supply but little demand.

So every step along the sales cycle matters more than ever in the effort to create perceived value.

The Premise

Even though this may be viewed as a tactical exercise after all, it’s just an ad – there are some strategic observations that can be applied across the marketing spectrum.

1. People Don’t Read

They scan. They scan magazine pages, webpages, newspaper pages, twitter feeds, etc. Their eyes dart around the screen or page looking for something interesting. Advertisements are scanned even less.

You’re probably scanning this content right now to see if there’s something interesting — to get the essence of the content.

(Highlighted by the text in block quotes.)

Having conducted a number of eye-tracking and usability studies I’ve seen first-hand how easy it is for people to miss even the most important information.
Creating scannable marketing assets is key. Think “Scan-Ability” in everything you do.

2. No Second Chances

This property is on the market for $3.9 million per side. Less than 3/10 of 1% of the people in the U.S. can afford this property.
Even fewer are in the market to buy a home at any one time and even fewer still would be interested in a home in Steamboat.
Even fewer would actually be here and see this property in a magazine.
So for the perhaps the small handful of qualified, interested, potential buyers per quarter who might see the ad it better be compelling. You’re not getting a second chance. This is why print magazines are so tough for single property-type marketing – the frequency and reach for this target market is very low.

With these two points in mind, here are 5 issues with the ad along with commentary on how this ad can be improved to better connect with a potential buyer.

1. Hotmail

Click to Zoom

Just about every commenter had an issue with the Hotmail e-mail address. So do I. It’s a professional credibility issue. Hotmail, Yahoo, Gmail e-mail addresses are fine for personal e-mail but a Hotmail or similar account for business is unprofessional. It lacks credibility. For example spammers, scammers and Internet crooks all use Hotmail, Yahoo, Gmail, etc. and we’ve developed associations from those experiences. Those negative associations hinder the process of establishing trust in the early stages of a relationship.

For some reason many in real estate continue to use such an email address. I can’t figure out why this is so prevalent in real estate while other professions got the message a long time ago.
A professional company e-mail address is a must.

2. Duplicate Photo

NAR research shows that 84% of buyers consider photos the most important piece of information about the property. In this case a crop photo repeat of the gondola car doesn’t reinforce the value of the property, add context to the narrative or aid in the scan-ability of the ad. In addition the placement of the photo in the center causes an unnatural break in the text. A stunning interior, detail or view photo could have been a great hook to pull a reader in.

We see issues related to photography perhaps more than any other. This is completely at odds with what buyers want to help them extract value and make a decision. Photography is at the heart of marketing because people want passive visuals that help them determine if a marketing message is worth their time. Again, photography speaks to the “scan-ability” of a marketing message.

3. Copy/Information

Click to Zoom

Since we know people initially scan it’s important to present critical marketing information in a way that scannable and easy to understand.

This text is just the opposite.
The treatment of all caps with a mono–spaced font is almost painful to read and impossible to scan.
The main selling and differentiating points of this property should be easy to find, easy to read and easy to understand.

Click to Zoom

Unfortunately this copy gives no indication of price, property scope or even property type. This is a $4 million property and yet the last line reads “a must see for any buyer.”
No it isn’t.

Finally, a grammar error in the third sentence puts the nail in the coffin of this copy.

The trend we see in real estate is to write uninspiring, generalized, one-size-fits-all copy while using the same tired descriptions over and over. Go read a few more descriptions and you’ll quickly become numb to the echo-chamber of:
“amazing views”
“views, views, views”
“Exquisite”
“Views”
“Luxury”

This is completely at odds with the social-media driven cultural shift to authenticity, tone/voice and transparency.
Once someone makes that initial scan and decides they’re interested, copy gives an opportunity to connect. The copy should be meaningful and relevant.

Having conducted a number of eye-tracking and usability studies I’ve seen first hand how easy it is for people to miss even the most important information.

4. Who is in Charge?

Click to Zoom

The ad contains three different entities for contact:

• The developer
• An individual
• A brokerage

From an interested buyer’s perspective this is confusing and adds unnecessary clutter to the ad. This ad can be improved by providing a single clear contact.

Real estate developments typically have a number of “cooks in the kitchen” all wanting exposure and credit for the project. Many brokers even admit they use their listing’s marketing as a primary way to market themselves. But for marketing to be effective all the egos and ulterior motives need to be put aside and the focus put on what’s in the best interest of the potential buyer. Put the buyer’s need for simplicity and clarity first. Don’t make the potential buyer think.

Internet adoption in real estate is still too low and much of what is being created is way behind what’s needed to meet consumer expectations and be competitive.

5. No Online Resource

Click to Zoom

We know that 90% plus of real estate buyers begin their search online. I’d go so far as to say an even higher percentage of second homebuyers begin online.

And yet this ad offers no web address for someone to find more information. For an $8 million property this is a lost opportunity. Even the developer’s domain is without a website.

Internet adoption in real estate is still too low and much of what is being created is way behind what’s needed to meet consumer expectations and be competitive.

In this case, a memorable domain with a simple landing page containing property information and a short contact form would be a good start. It would provide the added benefit of being able to track the ad’s effectiveness. Get on the web or get out of business.

Summary
What’s encouraging to know is that all recommendations are essentially free. More attention to detail and understanding of how a medium can best be used can go a long way to improve marketing results. What are your thoughts?
Thanks for reading!

Altera Performance Group - New Media Marketing & Technology

Find the 5 Mistakes - Click to Enlarge

There are at least 5 mistakes in this ad that, if avoided, would make this ad much more effective. Can you find them?

(The fact that it’s print isn’t one of them )

Leave your thoughts in the comments and I’ll follow-up with answers in a few days.

Altera Performance Group - New Media Marketing & Technology

The Rocky Mountain News is publishing it’s final edition today. They are done.

We recently launched WeLoveSteamboat.com, a community user-generated content site about why we love Steamboat, for Wild Horse Meadows. I have been amazed at the traction and interest the site is getting. Over the past few weeks I’ve had the opportunity to meet with Steamboat business owners, community leaders and other interested parties to introduce and discuss the site and how they can participate and benefit. The response in these meetings & conversations has been 110% positive, enthusiastic and appreciative. People are excited about the opportunity that they can participate in the story of Steamboat. They are excited that a resource is being created that they can share with friends on FaceBook and others around the world. We even created free, branded WeLoveSteamboat.com video widgets for businesses to add to their site which gives them instant Steamboat content.

So as the Rocky Mountain News publishes it’s last edition today I’m sharing this terrific article about the future of media.

Article:

February 19, 2009

Clinging To The Past Is Not A Strategy

Posted by Adam Singer in Opinions, Randomness

How do you feel about Viacom suing YouTube for a billion dollars?

How about the RIAA pushing ISPs to hand over user data?

What about the Wall Street Journal editor claiming Google devalues everything it touches?

And now Hulu Hollywood pulling content from Boxee?

In each of these cases (and throngs of others), these organizations only succeed in:

* Destroying their public image with an onslaught of negative publicity

* Demonstrating how out of touch they are with our world

* Positioning themselves as companies clinging to a past that is no longer a reality

* Slowing down progress in an ultimate, inevitable transition that can’t be legislated or sued away

* Turning their back on tools which enable a profitable and prolific future that can actually makes their users happy

* Branding themselves as draconian

* Standing on the wrong side of the future media crossroads

The future of content does not belong to those who try to lock it down, sue, or otherwise impede the direction of an open information society. We’re pretty much already that, and it’s a beautiful world for companies who organize around making content open and accessible.

Unfortunately those in the previous guard making the decisions can’t see beyond their myopic view of the past world they built empires on top of. That world doesn’t exist anymore, and no amount of lobbying can put the genie back in the bottle.

The never-ending parade of drama we see every day of battles between old media and technology are difficult to read because the new tools around us are so exciting and enable so much. Not in terms of piracy, in terms of possibility for everyone to have a voice. We have given birth to a long tail of influence, authority and content – which has been enabled to thrive due to technology that old media would be happy to see go away. The truth is, everyone can thrive here, but the problem is those with power have grown complacent and can’t view a world where they are not king.

This is creating much more than a PR nightmare. The music industry is in big trouble right now because they ignored the shift. Print media is suffering the same fate. Hollywood is making similar missteps. And, as history repeats itself, the reality is none of these industries are as permanent as you make them out to be in your mind. Media has always changed with technology, usually with a fight. Scribes were put out of work with the advent of the printing press, the telephone killed the telegraph, video killed the radio star. You know the story.

Allowing the natural flow of society to shift to the most efficient forms of media and communications due to advances in technology is the path we must take to improve our world at the macro level. Creating unnatural barriers in an attempt to block advancements in technology merely because it disrupts a business model is doomed for failure. Embracing the shifts and building businesses around them is the logical move.

Long term, the examples above won’t even matter. We’ve built a world of citizen-powered media, and many smart organizations within industries are diving in and providing professional level content in an open format and profiting quite well from it (it can be done). Right now it’s a bit disjointed but if you’re a part of this you can literally taste the future of communications. I’ve said this before and I stick with it: it has never been a better time to be a talented content producer of any type.

While equilibrium is reached and the big players take a scorched earth, ignore the past strategy – you have a tremendous opportunity to quietly build something amazing that thrives in an open-information economy.

Please visit Adam’s terrific blog at www.thefuturebuzz.com.

Altera Performance Group - New Media Marketing & Technology