When are you going to close for Christmas?

Some agents we have spoken with are planning to shut up shop as early as today, but Zoopla is urging those companies to think again.

Zoopla is encouraging agents “to keep their branches open as much as they can” in order to benefit from the portal’s latest marketing campaign, which launches on Monday.

Zoopla says that the new ten-week campaign will be its most digital focused campaign yet and aims to increase traffic to the platform by 25% compared to the festive period last year, in turn driving more leads to agents.

Targeting existing homeowners, and specifically second and third-steppers, the campaign, which will use market intelligence and research, will look to capitalise on their collective need for more space, indoors and outdoors, which came to fruition as a result of lockdown.

This marketing campaign will, according to Zoopla, provide fresh opportunities for agents, and the portal is urging its customers to remain open over the festive period to make the most of this ongoing upsurge.

Zoopla will resurrect its 30 second television ‘Power Tools’ advert, which speaks to Zoopla’s understanding of users who have been dreaming about more space and/or tackling the projects that help them to get it. This culminates in a heart-warming, relatable TV moment sharing Alex’s renovation project, voiced over by actress Diane Morgan (star of BBC Two comedy, Motherland). The advert will air across Channel 4, Sky, and ITV, during programmes such as Emmerdale, Sarah Beeny’s New Life in the Country, and Great British Bake Off: The Winners.

The fully integrated campaign will appear across a breadth of media channels, including TV, YouTube, VOD, Display and social, and will feature Zoopla’s brand positioning – ‘We know what a home is really worth’. The campaign will drive a national presence for Zoopla, balanced with a targeted local campaign in key towns and cities.

Gary Bramall

“Lockdown led people to make a once-in-a-lifetime reassessment of their home, where it falls short, and what it needs to deliver,” explained Gary Bramall, Zoopla’s chief marketing officer. “Key to this is the search for more space, both inside and outside, creating an as yet unexhausted opportunity for agents to capitalise on those prospects who are yet to fulfil that ambition to move.”

He added: “From those who intend to enter the market in January in a rush to beat the stamp duty deadline, to those who simply want to take their time and move over the next six to twelve months, the scope for new business is broad, and Zoopla is poised to pique and nurture the appetite of every prospective move.

“Our market-leading data tells us that second and third steppers are the key to unlocking this potential, specifically the 35-54 age bracket of existing homeowners, who harbour the aspiration and financial ability to move in the near term. After a year of putting their lives on hold and distancing, they are ready for a new start in 2021; they’re more cognisant of how their home does and doesn’t work for them as a result of COVID, which is why we’ve put them at the centre of our new campaign.

“This cohort is also less dependent on the stamp duty holiday, which is why we’re conscious that building momentum across January and February will continue to bear fruit for agents for the succession of campaigns that we have planned through 2021.

“We’re confident that the annual Boxing Day peak will prove significant this year; with more people spending more time at home, in smaller bubbles, having the perfect living environment will mean more than ever, leading to a sustained upsurge in market activity throughout January and into February. This is why we’re launching our campaign earlier and urging agents to keep their branches open as much as they can. It’s unlikely that their investment of time will be wasted.”