Shall We Dance in the Open Kitchen?

One thing about the world of marketing today is that it is a constant challenge—for all companies everywhere—to be able to break through all the clutter and the noise of our modern world and to get their message out successfully. One can dream of creating an ad that wins awards, shooting a commercial that becomes the talk of talk shows, or making a sales video that goes viral. However, there is always a bottom-line when it comes to advertising. And while awards are great, and yes, they can bring those responsible for them in the advertising world prestige, more business—and yes, higher rates, from a business management perspective, the best advertising effort is one that does what it is supposed to do—to find eyeballs and to eventually to sell!

For an Australian real estate agency, a slickly produced, shot, and yes, choreographed video showcasing one of their listings—42 Chamberlain Road—is bringing them worldwide attention but for unusual reasons. Their video poses an interesting question for the times in which we live. Can you generate too much buzz for your business? Or at least, can you generate the wrong kind of buzz. The video has drawn criticism in the media and, of course, in the age of social media both lots of shares and lots of snarky comments! But, in the end, is the buzz that this provocative video is getting just what was intended—making it a huge success for the provocative real estate agent behind it and for his company?

This article is focused on this interesting tale from Down Under. It centers on the power of a viral video that is, no doubt, "entrancing"—and controversial, and sexy, etc. The video and all the publicity and buzz it is generating is a classic case study that proves that more than a century apart in time, both P.T. BarnumandGary Vaynerchuk were right! Barnum famously said—or at least the quote is attributed to him, "There really is no such thing as bad publicity." This adage is especially true today in what we have come to refer to as the Attention Economy, a moniker popularized by Gary Vee (the CEO of VaynerMedia and another great showman) based on the economic principle of scarcity. As author Matthew Crawford put it so very well and concisely in his book, The World Beyond Your Head: On Becoming an Individual in an Age of Distraction:

"Attention is a resource—a person has only so much of it."

In this article, we will argue that—in an era when shares, clicks, watches, and media attention are the metrics of our social media age—all buzz is good! Always. Always. Always! We will talk about the negative attention that the video is getting, but remember, it is attention! And so rather than joining in the criticism of this video, we will instead praise the creativity and thinking that went into producing what may well be the most viral and interesting real estate video made to date. And yes, there may be more—many more—such videos to come like it, both in the world of real estate and far, far beyond.

That is because we live and compete in a world where, as Gary Vaynerchuk famously put it so well and so bluntly: "The currency of business is attention!" (emphasis added). And yes, the video is a success as it has definitely brought the real estate agency behind it a great deal of attention! Whatever the house eventually sells for, the fact that the video is being talked about, written about, and yes, shared and shared and shared around the world makes this effort a win, a big win, for the real estate company and may portend a new era in how you market homes—and a whole lot more—in the Age of Attention!

The Video

Now as I go through my day as a professor and strategic management consultant, I, like many of even most of you, may find it hard to define exactly where the line is between working and wasting time on the web today. My wife, quite reasonably, holds that too much of my time is in the latter category! However, as one who studies and reports on trends, I must, of course, click on news stories and videos that catch my attention and are fed to me by SkyNet with surprising accuracy for my interests, my tastes, and yes, quite likely by my demographics as a married, middle-aged man!

And so yes, when a video news story appeared to me when I was innocently scrolling through my Facebook feed to catch-up on the news of the day and my high school friends' cats, glamorous lives and successful kids and grandkids, I felt obligated—for purely work reasons, of course—to click on a CNN story with the title, "Raunchy Real Estate Promo Raises Eyebrows." And I, like you likely will do now, felt that I should take approximately a minute out of my day to investigate just what the story was all about, of course, just to check-out if there might be a marketing story here. Uh, to say the least, there was quite a story... and yes, quite a video!

So, without further adieu or any more disclaimers as to why I clicked on a story with the first three words in the headline being "raunchy real estate," here is the original story from CNN:

And now, being intrigued, I just had to investigate the matter further and go the source, for professional reasons, of course. So, in less than a minute, I was able to find the YouTube video from Australia that started it all. And so, yes, you may not want to watch the original video with little ones or your big boss around (I'm just hoping that I'm still cool with my university's IT department after clicking on it a few times for, ahem, "research!") Clearly though, if you are a realtor or work with real estate companies on their marketing, advertising, and/or social media and thought using a drone to photograph a listing or adding background music to a listing's video tour and/or photo slideshow was creative, well, sit back and see what might be best labeled as "turning up to 11" the creativity level for home videos and perhaps forever "upping the ante" when it comes to how you market a property in the age of attention!

And, of course, now there is even more! You can watch a spoof "director's commentary" of the video available with some hilarious answers to the inevitable "what were they thinking" questions you, probably all of you, have after watching the initial video...

But you can also watch a very real "Director's Cut" of the video production. This was put out by Bexley, New South Wales-based Opticool Studios, who "specialize in super creative and effective real estate marketing." The video company's founder—and very real director of this video—Bobby Tabikh, who yes, is available to shoot your next real estate, hotel, restaurant, etc video, or even your wedding!

42 Chamberlain Road

With all of the focus on the commercial itself, it goes without saying that the whole point of the video was that it was made to showcase a very real house, and a beautiful one at that, being marketed by LJ Hooker Bankstown. LJ Hooker is the Australian market equivalent of what a Re/Max or Century 21 in the United States—a leading national, brand in a very fragmented, crowded marketplace that helps give local real estate agencies a higher profile identity through being a franchisee of the firm. Sam Nader, who presented the video at the opening of it, is the director of the Bankstown agency,

Just as one has come to expect in the American market, you can view the listing for the property at 42 Chamberlain Road from the comfort of your desk or your easy chair online from right here in the US of A! The video is prominently featured on the online listing for this suburban Sydney property. As you could see from watching the video...

The home features an open concept kitchen. (I'm certain that's what they were trying to say, right?)

...Among a whole slew of luxury features. And yes, you are not too late, as this likely million dollar property with some very unique design touches will be sold at auction on May 10 at 3 PM local Sydney time—just in case you are interested!

As one can imagine, there's been swift reaction to the video for the home at 42 Chamberlain Road from all over the world! And for the most part, it has been harsh, and yet, at the same time, somewhat hilarious! From The Guardian to Mashable, the video has drawn a great deal of media attention, and in just a few short days, it has amassed over 1.3 million views on YouTube—and likely many, many more when you consider the traffic viewing the video not just on any number of media sites, but on the Australian listing site and on the listing realtor's own website!

And of course as these things go on social media, more talk about the video in the press and more shares on the web meant that the buzz about the video has only continued to grow! The Twitterverse globally has had strong reactions to the video. Twitter users have shared the video in comical, yet convincing ways...

...and shared often hilarious reactions to it!

They have tried to draw a larger significance from the imagery of the video....

...And they have looked at the "Basic Instinct"-like qualities of the video.

The video has drawn strong reactions...

...And inspired Twitter users who have really, really watched the video—likely many times to notice such details!

Analysis

Now, as I hinted at the outset, I am not going to "pile on" Sam Nader and join the media frenzy, both in traditional and new media alike, that has happened over this video on 42 Chamberlain Road. Yes, the video is different. Yes, it's creative! Yes, it's sexy—and it's definitely suggestive of even more! But I am going to join with the minority opinion on this one and say that the video works—and it works big time! The only other media outlet that I have found through the help of "Mr. Google" that has spoken rather positively on Nader's video production was The Young Turks, who offered this online discussion about the video (and yes, an American panel was discussing an Australian real estate home marketing video—#winning)!

In his interview with The Guardian, Nader commented that:

“I just wanted to do something different in the industry, and it really, really worked... Video gets attraction to the property, and the whole point of real estate is to get as many eyes as possible on the property."

Bingo! He gets it. Nader knows that getting as many eyes as possible on the property as possible gets attention and if you follow the Gary Vee mantra that attention is the currency of business today, well, that will means that all of the massive attention on the video will turn into real interest in the house—and yes, at the end of the day, that means real offers for real money! More than a century in time apart, both P.T. Barnumand Gary Vaynerchuk were right: There really is no such thing as bad publicity, especially now in the "Attention Economy."

It is still too early in the process to know exactly how all of the buzz being generated by this intentionally sexy and entrancing video will translate into an actual sale and the price point of that sale for this particular listing. However, based on Nader's own experience with other homes with creatively-made videos on them (maybe not as creative as this one!), he has seen very good results. And to his credit, the real estate head has not—and does not want to be known for—making sexually-tense, soft core videos for his listings. As he told The Guardian, Nader intended this video to be more funny than sexy, but that his aim is that "whether it’s funny, it’s rude or its sexy, every video I do is different” (emphasis added).

And so whatever and wherever your particular business is, as a respected strategic management consultant, I would urge you to just think about how different this video is than any of the routine, boring videos that you have seen trying to interest you in a Realtor's home listing. Drones, expected today. Music, mostly boring today. Staging, beginning to all look the same. 3D and 360-degree views of homes—so 2018! Creativity works! Always has... and it always will—and now especially so in the "Age of Attention!"

While using a suggestive script and sexy dance moves to sell a house may certainly not be everyone's "cup of tea" (Ok, maybe that was intentional, given it's my father's homeland of Australia), if I was in real estate, I would be asking "How can I make my video showcase look different and really standout!" And whatever field you are marketing in, the challenge today is indeed to rise above the noise and get that attention! Do you want to be known as the "suggestive dry cleaner" or the "funny dentist?" Do you want to be known as the "friendly lawyer" or the "singing accountant?" Well, the key—in the era of the "Attention Economy"—is to be known! Without being known, you have no chance to prove yourself, your worth, your value. And so if it takes making an MTV-quality video to sell a house, why not? What, I would ask, is the alternative today?

About David Wyld

David Wyld ([email protected]) is a Professor of Strategic Management at Southeastern Louisiana University in Hammond, Louisiana. He is a management consultant, researcher/writer, publisher, executive educator, and experienced expert witness. He is the founder and publisher of both The IDEA Publishing [The Best in News, Information and Content Marketing] and Modern Business Press [The Best in Academic Journals].

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