A new campaign in Quebec encourages those considering selling their homes without a realtor to think twice.
The ads are the first joint work from the Organisme d’autoréglementation du courtage immobilier du Québec (OACIQ), the Québec Federation of Real Estate Boards (QFREB), and Quebec’s 12 real estate boards, which decided to work together in 2012. The spots were created by Brad, an advertising agency with offices in Montreal and Quebec.
“They were having six, seven different campaigns running at the same time,” said Dany Renauld, co-president of Brad. “They decided to join, put their money, resources and communications plan together, to have a better impact. It was an historic moment.”
The campaign, which launched on Feb. 17, includes a TV spot where a homeowner explains the headaches of selling a house himself while his “for sale” sign grows beside him to list his various troubles.
It’s accompanied by newspaper ads, animated online banners and ThinkBroker.ca – a microsite that uses an ever-growing for sale sign as the navigation. Homeowners are being encouraged to go it themselves by companies like DuProprio.com, a commission-free real estate service that helps owners sell their own houses – and is the second-most visited realty site in Canada.
Vizeum’s Montreal office handled the media buy.
“The competition is very strong in Quebec especially,” said Renauld. “The way that people now think that they can sell their house or buy it without a broker, and the competitors said it’s easy, you don’t need to pay the commission, blah blah. But people don’t realize, for most people, it’s the biggest transaction in your life.”
Industry ads across the country have also driven home the benefits of using a realtors, including Ontario realtors’ “We do the homework” and The Canadian Real Estate Association’s “How Realtors Help.”
