In a time of widespread uncertainty, Seattle-based brokerage Windermere Real Estate is once again focusing its marketing efforts on what an agent can do that technology can’t: Fight for their clients’ dreams.
Last week, Windermere released a video ad titled “The Human Algorithm” as Part 2 of a marketing campaign the brokerage launched last year highlighting its agents’ willingness to go above and beyond for their clients, dubbed “All in, for you.” The campaign followed the company’s $10 million rebranding effort in 2018, in which Windermere unveiled a new logo, and a celebration in March 2019 in which the company marked its 30-year anniversary and a $38 million funding milestone for its nonprofit Windermere Foundation.
Windermere has more than 300 offices and 6,500 agents in Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, Washington and Mexico. The brokerage worked on the marketing campaign with Portland, Oregon-based global design firm, Ziba Design, which also counts Apple, Coca Cola, FedEx, Ford, Microsoft, General Electric and Sony among its clients.
“[The new video] tells the story of how our agents bring their client’s unique vision of happiness to life,” Shelley Rossi, Windermere’s vice president of communications, told Inman via email. “When working with our agency (Ziba Design) on the development of our new brand framework we noticed that a lot of the real estate industry focuses on a single solution, like technology, as if it’s the silver bullet to a seamless real estate experience.”
“The Human Algorithm speaks to the notion that connecting a client to the home of their dreams is about so much more than technology or any one thing,” she added. “It requires an overcommitment to helping them achieve their real estate goals, no matter what obstacle. Technology on its own can’t do that. We’ve always felt that what makes our agents different is a proprietary mix of joy, insight, and advocacy that helps them turn their clients dreams into reality. And now we have a name for it: The Human Algorithm.”
The video features actual Windermere agents in all their diversity, smiling and seemingly ready and waiting to help. The ad’s narrator says:
“We are the wayfinders, the problem solvers, the poets of possibility. We begin each day with a simple question: What can I do to connect my client with their dreams? Answering this in countless thoughtful ways is what inspires us. It’s what gives our life’s work meaning. Because this is where we help people move their lives forward. No app or algorithm can do that. Because no alignment of ones and zeros, however wondrous, can be our clients’ champions, their unwavering fans, their guides through uncertain territory.
“We will fight for them, laugh with them, and create lasting bonds. Because transactions come and go, but transcendence — the simple act of improving the life of a fellow human being — that will always endure. We are Windermere. And we are the Human Algorithm.”
Windermere shared the video publicly via social media last week with the hashtag #WeAreTheHumanAlgorithm. Its offices plan to use it to communicate the Windermere culture and what makes it different, according to Rossi.
“Offices and agents are adding the video to their websites and we plan to do the same on Windermere.com in conjunction with the rollout of our new site later this year which will embody all our new branding and messaging,” she said.
