In the Summer of 2009, our team playfully (but seriously) said, “video is the new photo in real estate marketing.” From that post within The Hood (WellcomeMat’s community forum):
“Don’t frustrate yourself into believing that video is just an incremental improvement to virtual tours just because you are having a hard time getting people to “get it.” Here at WellcomeMat, our competition is photos. That’s right all, our team has our sites on making sure that we get to a point where the majority of listings have videos.”
We later asked the question, “when searching for real estate information, consumers value which of the following the most?” within a 2009 survey. The responses–published here in our real estate video report–were as follows:
48% Photos
41% Video(s)
9% Virtual Tours/Slideshows
2% Floorplan(s)
Video will be a standard form of real estate marketing…
What is interesting is when people view video as “extra” or something that will remain optional for the foreseeable future.
Unlike virtual tours–whom deliver rich media via proprietary interfaces that search companies link users into because there is no standard way of displaying virtual tour companies’ magic shows within their sites–video players are a standard (like JPEGs are for images) means by which to play a video. Users click play > watch the video > click on chapters within the video if the video is hosted by WellcomeMat > done. See how easy that was?
Web and mobile video is not ancillary: it is a critical portion of any/all web and mobile experiences. We kiddingly state that photos are WellcomeMat’s competition, knowing full well that photos and video are both critical forms of marketing materials.
We simply believe that videos and photos will be equally important in the future of real estate.