March is Marketing and Branding Month here at Inman. As we enter spring selling season, let’s explore which tried-and-true tactics and cutting-edge innovations are getting deals done in today’s market. We’ll also recognize the industry’s marketing and branding leaders with Inman’s Marketing All-Star Awards.
ERA Real Estate has stepped up to the home plate with a season-long Major League Baseball media campaign launching today.
The media campaign includes prominent ad placement on MLB.TV and more than a dozen ERA Real Estate “Day at the Park” events during minor league games.
Red Sox pitcher Walker Buehler will also be part of an ongoing social media campaign, “Moving Moments,” that highlights Buehler’s journey from college baseball wunderkind to baseball pro, despite injury setbacks and years spent in the minor leagues before making it back to the major league pitch. Buehler’s journey, ERA said, will encourage homebuyers and homesellers who are navigating their own challenging ‘moving moments’ in today’s housing market.
David Marine
“ERA Real Estate has a rich history of industry leadership and helping millions of homebuyers and sellers,” Anywhere Brands Chief Marketing Officer David Marine said in a written statement. “Our national baseball media campaign is the perfect fit for the ERA brand due to its strong ties to community roots and perfect alignment with our vision of massive reach with hyperlocal knowledge.”
In an interview with Inman, Marine said ERA is one of the most trusted brands in the industry, with 99.2 percent of past clients saying they’d recommend an ERA broker to a friend or family member.
Despite a near-perfect recommendation rate, ERA has often shied away from bragging about its groundbreaking history, industry-leading retention and outside-of-the box leadership strategy — something Marine is working to change with ERA President Alex Vidal.
“We’re looking for ERA to have a vehicle in which to tout its brand and a little bit larger scale than has been done in the past,” he said. “[ERA] is recommended 99 percent of the time. That feedback from ERA clients and customers speaks volumes, and we feel that is a message that’s worthy of being broadcast on a larger scale.”
Marine said baseball and real estate have a lot in common, as both are a key part of American culture. Just like children often dream of making it to the major leagues, adults often dream of owning a home and becoming part of a community — and the MLB media campaign gives ERA a unique opportunity to tap into both goals on a national and local level.
“The first thing that basically every kid does is play Little League, right? That’s kind of the iconic thing that you do [and] sign your kids up for,” he said. “There are all these hyperlocal pockets of baseball around the country in every single town that’s out there. I think it gives us that connection.”
“We’re also encouraging our network of agents and brokers to take advantage of this national scale and coverage, and even if you don’t have a minor league team in your market, you can translate what we’re doing beyond the major and minor leagues, whether it’s supporting local high schools, little leagues or other baseball events. It’s a chance to create community connections and use this as a messaging platform for what you can offer.”
Although this is a season-long media campaign, Marine said the first few months will be crucial to familiarizing MLB fans with ERA. The MLB’s March 27 kickoff coincides with the spring homebuying season and will put ERA affiliates front and center as buyers and sellers continue to navigate a wily sales terrain.
“Baseball is a fantastic vehicle for a real estate brand because, first of all, the season aligns perfectly with the real estate cycle. It gets hot, starts up in the spring, it lasts the whole summer,” he said. “Then there’s the fall secondary market. That’s kind of when the baseball playoffs start kicking off. So from a time and seasonality standpoint, it’s a perfect match.”
“I think what’s beautiful about this campaign, especially in this market and what’s going on in the world today, is that we’re focusing in on, ‘You don’t want to do this on your own.’ You want to try and seek advice, insight and gain knowledge, and that’s the key role of the real estate agents since their inception, to say, ‘Hey, let me help you through this process. You don’t have to figure it out on your own.’”
“We have a 99.2 percent recommendation rate, which speaks more to consumers than saying, ‘Hey, we’re No. 1 in this and we’re No. 1 in that.’ It’s real people are saying, ‘We recommend working with this brand and these agents more so than anyone else.’”
Alex Vidal
The ERA network has had a few weeks to prepare for the MLB media campaign rollout, as company leaders announced it at the brokerage’s annual FUEL conference at the beginning of March. Brokerage president Alex Vidal said ERA “has always been a powerhouse,” and now it’s time to make sure the rest of the world knows, too.
“[We’ve been] steadily increasing its market share through community-focused initiatives,” he said in a written statement. “Our network was eager to elevate the ERA brand on a national stage, and baseball, with its deep community ties and diverse fanbase, aligns perfectly with our target market.”
“The baseball season offers an extended period to build brand loyalty while coinciding with our peak real estate selling seasons,” he added. “We’re excited to dive into the baseball world and transform passionate baseball fans into enthusiastic raving fans of ERA Real Estate.”
Beyond the media campaign, Vidal told Inman that ERA is laser-focused on making sure its affiliates can successfully weather market headwinds by shifting their attention to the “controllables,” like learning to leverage artificial intelligence, sharpening relationship-building skills, using data to help buyers and sellers make smart decisions, and maintaining a positive mindset.
“That sounds boring, but I equate it a lot to the weather,” he said. “I’m like, ‘Hey, we can’t control the weather, but we can control how we dance in the rain.’ There’s a lot of noise out there. But there’s also a lot that we can actually control.”
Vidal said ERA has a strong presence in 15 of the 50 largest metros and “little to no representation” in the remaining 35. The president said he’s hoping to change that this year, with the MLB media campaign being part of the brokerage’s growth strategy.
“A lot of our focus is helping our existing franchisees grow because there is going to be opportunity in the mergers and acquisitions space this year,” he said. “…It’s about what our franchisees have in front of them. The opportunities they have. What they have in their database. The holes in their market and how we can attack that. I want to move forward, and I want our affiliates to move forward. So, we’re focusing on the things that will help our agents — and consumers — live a better life.”
