99acres.com all keyed up to deepen consumer connect

Buying a house is a big decision in the lives of people. A great many factors are taken into consideration by buyers before they settle for any property. To help the buyers make judicious decisions, online real estate portal 99acres.com provides a whole gamut of information on properties - from floor plans, property photos, and locality videos to price trends, and ask & answer forum for property related queries. The portal launched a 360 degree advertising campaign to promote its offerings among a wide cross-section of consumers. In this, the multi-city OOH campaign stood out for its scale of execution and creativity.

The OOH campaign was targeted at people looking to buy, sell or rent property. The OOH creative and campaign was designed and executed by Span Communications.

Since the OOH medium is a proven platform for local marketing, the brand launched a multi-city campaign for the 1st time, covering Delhi/NCR, Mumbai, Pune, Bengaluru and Hyderabad. Span Communications had been working on the brief for almost a quarter. Shuvanu Chaudhuri, Associate Vice President -- National OOH Business, Span Communications, said, "The brief was simple yet complex at the same time as the competition had heated up and was on a blitzkrieg mode during our initial days of planning and strategising. The brief was to effectively address the right TG during transit and counter the visibility of competition as well.”      

A multi-dimensional campaign has been devised with various formats included large format billboards and transit mediums like Volvo buses and radio cabs across the key markets to ensure high impact and recall. However, while designing the media planning, the agency penned down various parameters. "Various parameters were considered, taking into consideration the TG, geo-demographics, dwell time, traffic movement and count, area dynamics, new project construction belt, etc. An exhaustive joint recce was conducted across markets to assess the current market conditions and gauge the demographic profile of the TG,” said Vivek Bharadwaj, Business Director -North & East, Span Communications.

To break the clutter, the campaign creative was designed in a unique and visually appealing manner showcasing different styles of key sets hanging on hooks. The key sets creative stood out on the OOH landscape.

As an innovative enhancement, real 3D metallic keys were hung up on few strategically placed billboards, which were placed in a way that the keys would sway gently in the wind.  Furthermore, on certain key stretches like DND Flyway in Delhi NCR, the agency created a branded passage consisting of eight large format mediums clubbed with 100 flagpoles and 85 reflective pots. High footfall malls like The Great India Place in Noida, which aggregate a monthly footfall of over 29 lakh people every month, were also targeted in a unique way. Special mediums were conceptualised and fabricated to be placed at key locations inside and outside of the mall.

The campaign was well received by the end-consumers as well as clients (developers and brokers). The brand has seen an increase in both visits and response on the site. "It is heartening to see the positive response for the current OOH Campaign. Span Communications has efficiently carried out the entire campaign for us. Starting from the creative design to media selection, planning and execution, the successive rollout across multiple key markets has been done well and within set timelines,” said Sumeet Singh, Senior VP Marketing, Corporate Communications & Alliances, Info Edge India.