Rightmove's latest marketing gambit - a cheeky parody of Netflix's "Selling Sunset" relocated to the rather less glamorous North East - has raised both eyebrows and the occasional smile across the industry. And whilst one must give credit where it's due for a dash of self-aware humour, this feels rather like throwing a few marketing crumbs from a very well-stocked table.
The portal giant's attempt to localise the glitz and glamour of Los Angeles real estate to the rather more modest surroundings of Wearside shows they haven't entirely lost their sense of fun. But many agents I speak with daily are finding it harder to smile about their relationship with the property portal behemoth, particularly as another round of price hikes looms on the horizon.
The timing is interesting. As reports flood in about declining lead quality and volume from Rightmove, they've chosen this moment to demonstrate they're spending at least some of their enormous profits on creative marketing. Yet one can't help but wonder if agents would prefer those marketing pounds to be invested in lead generation or portal innovations that might actually help them sell and let more properties.
It's a neat piece of content marketing, certainly. But it rather highlights the disconnect between Rightmove's priorities and those of their agent customers. While agents grapple with a challenging market and eye their portal costs with increasing concern, Rightmove appears more focused on clever social media campaigns than addressing the fundamental issues in their relationship with the industry.
One wonders how this concept might translate to other less photogenic locations across Britain. Will we see "Selling Scunthorpe" or "Marketing Merthyr"? The very absurdity of transposing LA-style property porn to provincial Britain rather neatly encapsulates Rightmove's increasingly strained relationship with reality.
The truth is, while Rightmove plays at being a media company, agents are facing genuine business challenges. Many report that portal leads are down significantly, yet costs continue to spiral upward. A funny social campaign might generate some positive PR, but it doesn't address the underlying tensions in the portal-agent relationship.
Perhaps this is simply a case of Rightmove doing what Rightmove does best - looking after its image while continuing to extract maximum value from its agent customer base. After all, when you're planning to push average monthly fees to £2,000 per branch by 2028, you need some positive PR to soften the blow.
The campaign may have made me smile, but I suspect many agents would prefer to see Rightmove investing in innovations that actually help them succeed, rather than clever marketing that primarily serves to burnish the portal's own brand. Until then, this feels rather like putting a designer outfit on a pig - entertaining, perhaps, but changing nothing fundamental about what lies beneath.
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