Having largely relied on online marketing and word of mouth to fuel growth over the last two years, the leading UK property site Zoopla has today launched a multi-million pound TV ad campaign with the hope to become a “household name” in Britain. It will include a number of prime-time slots across ITV, Channel 4, Channel 5 and the Sky digital channels, with the initial campaign running for five weeks to the end of September. There’s a tie-in with print and digital over the coming months too.
The TV ads themselves (example below) carry the theme that “finding the perfect property is much like finding the perfect partner” – is it really? – and pitch Zoopla on the basis that “free and easily accessible information helps buyers, renters, sellers and owners make better-informed property decisions”, which is hard to argue with.
It’s perhaps no surprise to see the aggressive company make a mainstream play, as its been gunning on many fronts lately. Zoopla recently launched an impressive augmented reality app for the iPhone that lets users search for properties for sale and rent and compare house prices by pointing the phone’s camera at a street, mining its 27 million strong property database.
While its also been making many a land grab of its own, recently acquiring the PropertyFinder Group, followed by the acquisition of property technology company Byteplay Ltd, whose assets included OnOneMap.com, DotHomes.com and Extate.com, all three of which are now pointing to Zoopla.co.uk.