- In July, Surterre Properties released a branding video to represent its global brokerage.
- Surterre's next video will launch this fall.
- Be authentic, and remember that less is more.
How does a top luxury residential real estate brokerage — with 430 agents who speak over 15 languages — find common ground among clients?
A video that came out in July from Surterre Properties somehow does just that.
The international brokerage makes creating branding video look easy, but it takes a certain finesse to move clients while also telling your company’s story. Here’s evidence that a good idea and solid execution can indeed accomplish both.
Jamie Williams, VP of marketing at Surterre Properties, shares the inspiration behind the video, viewers’ favorite moment and what’s next for the company in branding.
One thing we often discuss on Inman is knowing your client or niche as an agent. Your international brokerage caters to people in many countries and associates who can communicate in up to 15 languages. That’s a broad range. Was it difficult to find a campaign that worked brokerage-wide?
The video was welcomed because it hit on a universal truth and a feeling that we all share and could relate to — no matter what our backgrounds and no matter where we are from in the world we all share one feeling in common: how good it feels to be home.
Have you always done campaigns like this or have you homed in on specific areas such as China in the past?
Over the past 10 years, Surterre Properties has established itself as a top real estate brokerage built on teamwork and integrity with clients in Orange County and all over the world.
We are proud to be home to top agents who speak over 15 languages, including Mandarin, Cantonese, Taiwanese, Farsi, Arabic, Spanish, German, French, Italian, Danish, Finnish, Swedish, Greek and Afrikaans.
We find our agents don’t just sell homes to international buyers, but they really identify with and understand their needs. In addition to a strong personal network of international connections within our brokerage, we also have a Chinese-dedicated website to reach luxury buyers in China.
What was your goal with this video?
Our goal was to authentically create, (to) touch people’s hearts and make them feel.
Did you learn anything from making this video?
We learned a lot. In particular, we were a bit surprised that the scene that seemed to touch people the most was the one of the woman blowing out her birthday candles on her 70th birthday.
What we realized is that we all have a special, loving woman in our lives — maybe a mother or grandmother — who we just want to hug one more time.
Is this video part of a larger campaign?
Yes, we plan to continue to tell our story through video.
If so, what can we expect to see in the future?
We are so excited for our next new video to launch this fall. Warning: it’s going to be a heart-melter.
How are you distributing it?
We rely heavily on online marketing and social media to share our videos, and our goal is to create videos that people organically want to share.
What should brokerages focus on in their own videos?
Be authentic.
How about for actually making the videos themselves?
Less is always more.
