Melbourne estate agents PhilipWebb ditch “Jurassic” newspaper advertising
Melbourne eastern suburbs estate agents PhilipWebb have ditched "Jurassic" newspaper print advertising and will instead recommend that its clients only advertise their properties online.
It has previously advertised real estate listings via local publications including The Weekly Review, but believes that clients get the best value for money by advertising online.
It will place ads in print, but only if directed to do so by clients.
News Limited's Leader community newspapers publish a number of editions servicing the Melbourne eastern suburbs market as does Fairfax through its community newspapers joint venture with Antony Catalano's Metro Media Publishing group, publisher of the The Weekly Review.
PhilipWebb believes that print advertising is just a way for estate agents to get their brand noticed - paid for by the client.
PhilipWebb is promoting its online-only message via a slick-looking graphical YouTube video with the heading “why it’s time to abandon Jurassic advertising”.
It begins with the statement “Once upon a time dinosaurs ruled the planet…much like newspapers” and goes on to talk about the “meteoric rise of digital advertising which points to a similar fate for newspapers”.
“But newspapers are being kept alive by real estate agents who use your money to promote themselves instead of what should be the star attraction: your property.”
The video claims that a newspaper marketing campaign costs between $5,000 and $12,000 “most of it on an advertising dinosaur which is lucky to attract 0.5% of your target audience”.
The group promises a full online advertising campaign for $2,800 including GST.
The video, which is being promoted to clients via social media, also plays on the PhilipWebb name calling it the “webb revolution”.
Founder and director PhilipWebb says advertising properties in newspapers is not a “great return on investment for any vendor”.
“However, we know that nine of out ten people use websites to research buying properties. Online advertising allows you to reach your exact demographic through priority placement and refined searching.”
Webb said in his experience only about 50% of vendors understand the benefits of online marketing.
PhilipWebb will continue to promote its brand in local newspapers because clients still flick through the local paper.
“The fact is that newspapers are lucky to attract about 0.5% of your target audience,” Mr Webb said.
“That’s not great return on investment for any vendor.”
“Some clients browse the paper over the weekend and equate that with the serious searching potential buyers do online. Our experience is that it is quite rare.
“We believe in investing our clients’ money where it’s going to provide value, and a much larger percentage of people (89%) committed to purchasing property are looking solely online.
“If our clients wish to include newspaper advertising as part of their campaign, then of course we are happy to arrange this for them, but we no longer recommend they spend thousands on paper advertising. Simply put, we don’t see it working like it used to,” he says.
He believes that video will have increasing importance as the digital revolution continues.
“We strongly believe in the engaging power of video. We believe that its ability to reach buyers on an experiential level positions them to view - if not buy - a property much better than static text and images.”
PhilipWebb stopped advertising in metro dailies in 2000.
The real estate group has offices in Doncaster, Ringwood and Mitcham and promotes itself as the largest non-franchised firm in Melbourne with 110 staff.
