realestate.co.nz appoints The Monkeys Aotearoa; launches new brand design and campaign
New Zealand’s longest standing property portal, realestate.co.nz, has appointed The Monkeys Aotearoa, part of Accenture Song, as its new strategic, design and creative agency.
Says Sarah Wood, CEO, realestate.co.nz: “We are thrilled to collaborate with The Monkeys Aotearoa to develop a new brand identity and campaign that cuts through the noise of the market, builds brand love, and focuses on the buyer and their life. Over the last few years we have re-platformed our web product, launched our app, improved search accuracy, speed and many of our product features, so we were looking for someone to help drive our next stage of growth.
“The Monkeys had the strategic depth, creative firepower and design we were looking for. They’ve proven to be true partners, great collaborators, leading to finished work that we’re all proud of.”
Says Justin Mowday, CEO, The Monkey Aotearoa, part of Accenture Song: “realestate.co.nz is the Samsung of the property listings sector; they have a better product, better experience, better speed, better accuracy, but they’re up against a goliath brand that enjoys the default status, so many people just don’t know how good realestate.co.nz is. We’ve loved the opportunity to get involved from strategy to brand design and communications. Sarah, Vanessa, and the team have been brilliant partners and we look forward to the results coming.”
The Monkeys has led a refresh of the design system alongside the development of the new brand platform ‘It all starts here’. The new design system incorporates an evolution of the logo, with the new identity being applied to the product itself, including the website, app and advertising campaign.
At the heart of the ad campaign is a piece of storytelling – the tale of a young girl and her father as they navigate the highs and lows of moving house. It documents the girl’s initial frustration of moving away from her friends, to her awe and wonderment as she realises their new house gives her unspoilt access to her favourite thing – the night sky.
Says Damon Stapleton, chief creative officer, The Monkeys Aotearoa, part of Accenture Song: “We like the thought that finding a new house isn’t just about the bricks, mortar, number of rooms or off-street parking, it’s actually about the type of life you want to live. So rather than follow the category convention of leading with ads about functional product features, we want to encourage people to think about the life they want and finding the home that will help them achieve that.
“This story is reminiscent of many of us who have sought out change, in order to achieve the life we want to live. The film heroes the idea that wherever you are, whatever you’re looking for, change all starts at realestate.co.nz.
Alongside the broadcast film, the campaign also includes OOH, online video and digital that champions the night sky and the search portal that led to it.
Client: realestate.co.nz
Chief Executive Officer: Sarah Wood
General Manager Marketing and Media: Vanessa Williams
Head of Brand and Communications: Ashley Harder
Agency: The Monkeys Aotearoa, part of Accenture Song
Chief Creative Officer: Damon Stapleton
Chief Business Officer: Storm Day
Head of Planning: Tom Sykes
Group Business Director: Ruth Coulson
Head of Integrated Production: Rosie Grayson
Creative Directors: James Conner & Christie Cooper
Planning Director: Craig McLeod
Designer: Lucinda Fortescue-Hansen
Business Manager: Georgie Burns
Art Director: Susannah O’hUadhaigh
Copywriter: Arron Sharma
Production Company: FINCH
Director – Zia Mandviwalla
Executive Producer – Bex Kelly
Producer – Duncan Bernard
DP – Ziga Zupancic
Production Designer – Sarah Cooper
Editor – Julian Currin
Colourist – Alana Cotton
Online – Creature Post
Sound and music – Liquid Studios
Media Partner: OMD
11 Comments
piece of film. Made me feel good.
It’s ok. It’s 90 seconds of ok.
They sure do approach everything in a traditional way.
Expensive way to say you have zero point of difference.
Otherwise, I found it predictable and safe.
But hey, nicely shot.
But, where has the dangerous work gone?
Where are the clients willing to stick their necks out?
Why does everything feel so generic?
But hey, nicely shot.
Beautiful storytelling and craft. Congrats.
I’ll never be able to afford a house, but now I know where I’ll go to browse and dream about it. Love the work!
@dreamy You take the award for most obvious agency comment of the week.
As I said before, there is no point of difference between your client and any other real estate website. This is an expensive piece of communications that says nothing.
Although you may not feel like you’ll own a home (if it’s important to you, move to another city, much like previous generations have done before), but when you do decide to buy a house it become all-consuming.
It dominates your life.
You can’t escape it.
You explore every website, your client is just one of a handful. I’d argue that their website isn’t hugely different from their competitors.
An expensive ad that sells nothing.
Realist/Pessimist/Sad Human, maybe if you spent less of your time roasting other ads all day you could make a half decent one yourself. This is solid work in my opinion – tugs on the heart strings and gets RENZ out in the open.
Pay peanuts, get Song
I like it. Need to see the 30″ to be sure though because in reality the 90″ will probably run once on launch week and never again thereafter.
On another note why are so many people in these comment sections generically hating on film as a solution? Objectively, if you can convince a client to spend the money, well-crafted video is and will remain for some time the best way to build brand and ultimately shift product. All this snark about why are they not more experimental betrays either a lack of education in the fundamentals of marketing or a lack of consideration of the commercial realities in favour of being different for aesthetic reasons. Reminder for those who forget: this a commercial industry, not an aesthetic one.
I personally love this ad