Real estate listings company Yellow Pages NextHome has launched its first consumer marketing campaign since changing its name from Wall2Wall Media in February.
Created by Toronto-based digital and design agency Blackjet – which was hired by NextHome in November following a formal review – the “Life Moments” campaign is based on the insight that the decision to find a new home is usually driven by a major life moment, such as meeting a new partner, getting a divorce or having a baby.
The digital, print and radio campaign broke Monday and will run for 12 weeks. Media Experts handled media buying for the campaign.
A print ad, “Coupling,” uses a series of panels reading “Next date” to “Next boyfriend,” “Next proposal” and “Next honeymoon” to show the progression of a relationship. The final panel shows a stack of diapers accompanied by the phrase “Next triplets,” with the accompanying text reading: “When one thing, leads to another home.”
The campaign includes an extensive digital re-targeting element, along with print ads in Yellow Pages owned real estate publications including Western Living and Vancouver Magazine (Yellow Pages purchased the titles from TC Media in May). Radio ads will run in Toronto and Vancouver.
NextHome president Jacky Hill said the campaign is intended to increase consumer traffic to the site, which derives all of its revenue from advertising. “The more we connect with consumers, the more traffic we get, and the more likely we are to increase advertising revenue,” she said.
The fledging site is currently averaging around 200,000 unique visitors per month, but Hill said the expectation is that number will “significantly increase” through a combination of advertising and internal SEO strategies.
Hill said the average dwell time of 8-11 minutes on NextHome far exceeds the industry average of 1-2 minutes, attributing the greater traction to the fact the site provides additional context and lifestyle/neighbourhood content around listings.
The company has assembled contextual data around nearly 3,000 Canadian neighbourhoods, providing users with a sense of who lives in the neighbourhood and their lifestyle habits, said Hill.
NextHome has a presence in several real estate segments including resale, rentals and new home construction, where its competitors include Realtor.ca, Kijiji and BuzzBuzzHome.com, respectively.
Blackjet is also overseeing a redesign of NextHome’s print publications – which include Renters Guide and New Home Guide – as well as the company’s street-level distribution boxes.
