OVERVIEW

In today’s increasingly digital age, integrating video into a larger marketing and communications strategy is becoming vital for firms to highlight their expertise and position themselves as experts in their craft, especially in competitive industries such as commercial real estate. According to Cisco’s Visual Networking Index, by 2020, video consumption will account for nearly 80% of the world’s mobile traffic data.

The competitiveness of northern New Jersey’s commercial real estate markets extends into the brokerage community, driven by larger, nationally operating commercial real estate brokerages whose brand positioning and status as a household name within the industry can often give them a leg up when it comes to closing deals.

With decades of experience in the northern New Jersey market, NAI James E. Hanson, a Teterboro, NJ-based full-service commercial real estate brokerage, has become a trusted consultant and partner in deals and projects throughout the state and across a range of asset classes from industrial to office, medical office and retail. In order to continually reassert the firm’s hyperlocal market knowledge and expertise on the nuances in each of New Jersey’s unique submarkets, NAI Hanson turned to R&J to help them execute a video marketing strategy to elevate the brand position of the firm as well as position their brokers as experts in the northern New Jersey real estate market.

CHALLENGE

R&J was tasked with developing and managing a video marketing campaign on behalf of client NAI James E. Hanson with the dual objectives of positioning the firm as an authority in the market while elevating individual brokers’ expertise in varying asset classes across the industry. However, executing a video marketing strategy can be costly, time consuming, and if not leveraged effectively, it can be a wasted investment of a firm’s time and resources. In order to execute an effective content production and marketing campaign, it was evident that R&J would need to create engaging content that was tailored to audiences relevant to different asset classes while still communicating a cohesive brand voice.

ACTION

R&J tapped our deep expertise in the real estate industry, developing a range of engaging industry-related topics on the pulse of key market trends and hot topics within the news cycle. Next, each topic was tailored to one of NAI James E. Hanson’s associates. Our team planned a Q&A-style video shoot in order to capture key soundbites for use in shorter form videos optimized for social media use. Guiding the questions to ensure engaging content and market predictions were captured, R&J was able to work with the brokers on spotlighting both industry-specific challenges as well as getting their outlook on the future of the market.

R&J then partnered with an experienced videographer to ensure a polished, professional product was delivered. Our team coordinated a filming date and location, developed a shoot schedule with designated time slots for each of the six brokers participating, developed specific lists of questions, and held prep calls with each broker. On filming day, R&J oversaw the video shoot, ensuring the brokers touched on important elements of the topics at hand while speaking to NAI James E. Hanson’s brand messaging.

Following the video shoot, R&J worked closely with the videographer, combing the raw footage captured to pull out key answers and piece them together to form a series of short videos. After finalizing the videos, R&J’s digital team developed individual audiences tailored to each of the broker’s areas of expertise—medical office, industrial and Morris County office. After allocating a social media advertising spend to each of these three audiences for six of the twelve videos developed in the campaign, R&J monitored the ad campaign, optimizing the ads and reallocating funds to those performing the most effectively.

The videos were also leveraged through organic social media on NAI James E. Hanson’s social channels as well as on individual broker’s social feeds. Taking an integrated approach to all communications efforts, R&J’s PR team also utilized two of the videos to pitch media and secured a placement in NJBIZ, a leading provider of business news and information about New Jersey companies and the economy. The feature appeared in the publication’s Healthcare Spotlight edition.

CONCLUSION

The video advertising campaign resulted in a total of 30,698 video plays and reached an audience of 18,228 unique viewers. The featured media placement in NJBIZ reached a circulation of 15,153 business executives and professionals throughout New Jersey. Through a tailored content marketing strategy directed by our deeply experienced CRE team, R&J was able to successfully reach key target audiences and reaffirm our client’s position as an authority within New Jersey’s real estate sector.

R&J is also in the process of leveraging the videos organically through NAI Hanson’s social media channels, and have shared six of the 12 videos thus far, resulting in an additional 1,617 video views and over 200 engagements across Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter. Through R&J’s content creation strategy and corresponding video marketing campaign, we were able to assist NAI James E. Hanson in further establishing themselves as a leading authority in commercial real estate in N.J. By positioning NAI’s brokers as experts on the topics of medical office, industrial and Morris County office, R&J also elevated individual expertise in their various areas of focus.