Purplebricks is to become a sponsor of Team GB, with the deal running from now, through next summer’s Olympic Games in Tokyo, and until the end of next year.
Calling itself the “nation’s biggest estate agent”, Purplebricks said in the official announcement that it sells “three times more homes than the second placed agent” – a claim it makes after twentyci research last year.
Purplebricks will be designated the ‘official estate agent of Team GB’ and joins a variety of other sponsors including Coca Cola, Aldi and Persimmon.
Purplebricks will be showing its support for UK Olympic athletes by turning its usual ‘Sold’ boards to special gold versions, featuring the Team GB logo.
The new boards will, says Purplebricks, also reflect its own ‘gold’ from reviews site Feefo which last month awarded it ‘gold trusted service’ for a customer rating of over 4.5 during the previous 12 months.
Team GB are hoping to take more than the 366 athletes it took to the last Games, and Purplebricks will be mobilising the support of their own team of more than 600 local property experts in a series of campaigns and initiatives under the banner #TeamPB.
Vic Darvey, Purplebricks CEO, said: “We are delighted to announce our partnership with Team GB.
“Purplebricks is a proudly British company and we’re excited about how we can bring support for our heroic athletes to the streets as we build up to Tokyo 2020.
“This sponsorship was a natural next step for our business as, like Team GB, our ‘Team PB’ has the ambition and drive to win.
“We have hard working, experienced estate agents across the country – and we intend to use that local reach to move every community behind our athletes over the next year.”
Tim Ellerton, commercial director for the British Olympic Association, said: “Just over a year away from Tokyo 2020 we are delighted that Purplebricks has recognised the power of Team GB and Olympic athletes to bring our communities together.
“Their visibility across the streets of the UK gives us a great presence as we build up to the Olympic Games, and their innovation and customer focus makes them a perfect partner for Team GB.”
No details have been given as to the cost of the sponsorship but supermarket Aldi is rumoured to have paid £10m as a major sponsor over a four-year period back in 2016.
Comments (63)
And Kenny Bruce has just announced hes leaving.
#solidinfo
The quicker they get through their cash flow the better IMO.
Calling itself the “nation’s biggest estate agent”,
Is it? Isn’t PB operations by self employed individuals. Using the term that they are all as one, raises the spectre of, are LPE’s employees or not and the legal implications for employment legislation, taxation, compliance and liabilities? PB is a brand name.
Didn’t EYE do an article sometime back that raised the issue over who is the UK biggest estate agent and it was clear that PB were using the “single brand name for listings” on property portals. Questions were raised and continue today over the true number of PB listings. Can someone please remind me of how many staff and offices PB have compared to say Connells, Countrywide (even with its closures) and LSL. Maybe its time for ASA, Customs & Excise and NTSELAT to clarify the point ….. they should all come up with the same answer!
I have the data for last year and this year to date, in terms of Sstc by brand they are way out in front.
Where it gets tricky is if you add up all of countryside’s brands.
Does anyone have a concise list of countrywide brand names.
Purplebricks Share Price 20 June 2018
just under £3.57 Purplebricks
Share Price 1 Year later, 20 June 2019
just over £1 (as of 13.21pm)
Take note Team GB – a consistent Purplebricks performance, consistently POOR.
Look elsewhere for inspiration
If Purplebricks are sponsoring the Baton/Relay there may only be half a baton left by the finals
In the interest of Purplebricks PR balance –
Robert Candler commented on Trustpilot 30 mins ago
”Not a great start to selling my…” Not a great start to selling my property with purplebricks. Poor customer service, cant even get the basics right like putting a sign up on the property in the correct place and without damaging my property ! Only reason they are still selling my house is due to the cost of removing it from them to sell. Will be getting another company to sell it with asap.
whilst
Dorris1966 commented on Trustpilot an hour ago
”Bad experience” Sorry to say the experience I have with purple bricks Aylesbury bucks is awful not met my expectations what’s so ever poor service the agent even left without telling us and did not inform us of new agents details . no contact or feed back I was chasing them. top tip read those ts n c’s carefully it’s pricy to end the contract even if Like us you had NO service from them We have left purple bricks now ( at a cost ! ) and I’m using a local agent who is giving us the service you expect when selling your home
Note to Purplebricks. Spending Millions on marketing is of no use to the clients who have actually paid you upfront to sell their home.
Reviewing Purplebricks Purplefail in Australia, one notes this comment from Paul Glossop, founder and managing director of Pure Property Investment
Glossop tells StartupSmart he sees Purplebricks blaming the market conditions as “a bit of a smokescreen”
“In Australia, both home buyers and sellers value having someone to walk them through a transaction as significant as a property sale. In this way, their model wasn’t quite cut out for this market”.
……and so we turn to Purplebricks sponsorship of Team GB?
Are the sponsored athletes going to have to deal with PB enquiries and hand-hold PB clients through the sales process? ……because that minuscule team of PB Customer Service folk are being reduced or amalgamated or something or othered as part of the PB refocus/re-strategy/reinvention?
One thing you can be assured of with PB as a Homeseller it appears, is that they (PB) are Olympic Financial Atheletes when it comes to burning millions of pounds in marketing!! Gold Medals for Cash Burning without question!
Just the Olympic sized Question of “who will actually be handling the property sales? ……after I have paid upfront for my as yet unsold home?”.
You do wonder? OnTheMarket Marketing Department? ……remember them, the snoring sound behind that dusty old door! ……how much effort would it take to use their imagination with all this cannon fodder around them?!!! …..to blaze a marketing message that drives home the value of using a Proper, Actual, Real Estate Agent when selling your home?!
Think of the Kudos if they ( Stop Snoring OTM ) actually got behind UK Estate Agency?
Of course, I’m dreaming …….rather like the following Advert
“A homeowner is seen handing their £1000 plus over to a Purple Winged Fairy, who flying away with money tightly in hand whispers reassuringly that we’re just like a proper estate agent, only cheaper!
Abruptly the owner wakes up, realising that it was only a dream! …..lifts the phone and calls a “Real” Estate Agent!”
…….and the words gradually appear on the TV Screen “PurpleFairies don’t actually exist, however real Estate Agents do! Don’t be a Dreamer, speak to your Local Estate Agent.”
Quiet day at the office!?
The usual deluge of negative comments from those who’ve never worked for PB and have no idea how their agents operate.
A lot of jealous agents envious of PB’s profile and reputation. While the majority of you lot will be advertising the local church fete and getting excited about your boss having wet sponges thrown at him while wearing a “Laid Back & Co Estate Agents” t-shirt PB will be sponsoring our superb athletes. A fantastic bit of PR for them and an amazing event/team to be associated with. Have fun at the fete guys!!
I HAVE worked for PB, but quickly grew tired of the constant too much stick and not enough carrot. Not all of us were purple puppets worshipping at the altar of Bruce. A lot of good agents at PB, but a lot of idiots too. Agreed that it’s good PR, though.
“A fantastic bit of PR for them…”
And THAT IS ALL IT IS.
Nail on head, SLF.
NOTHING WHATSOEVER to do with the “PR” you would expect an Estate Agent to wheel out – that of selling homes for their customers.
They don’t have to.
SLF?
Silly Looking F*****?!
Your turn now….. I’ve got my Sponge ready!
I think you will find there are hundreds of high street agents that have been doing charity work for good causes for decades, collectively much more than PB, who’s sole aim is the make a name for itself off the back of team GB. It does nothing more than help our athletes (and is needed) but doesn’t help those in society that are in need that the high street helps.
Nobody works for PB, They’re all ‘self employed’.
It would be interesting to know whether the deal is along the lines of that struck with the Doddie Weir Foundation, where £5 is donated for every home sold in Scotland, as reported here on EYE in March:
propertyindustryeye.com/purplebricks-to-donate-5-to-charity-for-every-home-sold-in-scotland/
In the article, the then CEO Mr Bruce was quoted as having said
“So what better way to help than using our Sold signs to promote Doddie’s foundation and donating every time we sell.”
Except that may not be the way it is working. I have asked PB AND Mr Bruce several times to confirm whether the donations are made on their previously publicly stated definition of “sold” – which the rest of the Estate Agency world refers to as “Sold Subject to Contract” (and which Mr Bruce’s words above seem to indicate), or it is on an ACTUAL SALE when Missives are exchanged and the sale is closed.
So far my requests for confirmation have been ignored.
You might not think it makes a lot of difference – but I’ve seen around seventy “SSTC” properties #RElisted by PB in the last 2 months.
Sadly, the £350 or thereabouts won’t cure the horrible b*****d that is MND – but potentially not donating it when it ticks the box of a “sale” that #purp actually include in statistics quoted to the City to suit their own purposes would be, well…
…unsportsmanlike, would it not?
(Three of the “SSTCs” I have noted have been #RElisted as available for sale in the last 24 hours alone.)
In my OPINION so as not to defame any individual or entity, allegedly
Coca Cola causes obesity and cancer
Aldi are German
Persimmons’ houses fall apart
Purble Pr*cks burn other peoples money faster than it can be printed.
I am fed up with doing PB sales chasing for them .I am thinking of advising my clients not to take offers if PB are in the chain. It takes forever unless you do half the job for them .I am amazed at this-be like sponsorship by Wonga !
Ridiculous comment!
Yes, ‘Rich Buttersmead’ – yours is.
So why bother posting it?
I suggest Team GB follow a ‘Pay up Front’ model so as to ensure they get paid.
Time on market 79 days nearly 50% more than the ‘second agent’ at 45. Oh to live in that purple delusional world… Vendors are still asking how PB can sell properties without charging commission.
I hope Team GB are taking the fee up front, and it’s non refundable – even if we don’t win any medals
Does anyone remember the article saying Purplebricks in the uk is in profit?
So many untrue comments by repeated users/competitors, isn’t this a breach of posting rules?
Maybe in the next fortnight will answer that question.
Lots of jealous people posting already. I’m sure your local paper will run an ad for you whereas PB get massive exposure both at home and internationally. Congratulations to everyone at PB
So when my local LPE comes round to value my house and I pay my upfront fee, will he tell me that I will be sponsoring the Olympics with my money as PB has no profits itself to do so?
The Uk business is in profit, another fool thinking they know best
A superb bit of brand awareness for PB. If traditional estate agents aren’t taking notice, they should. I’d also be asking myself what I am doing locally to be No.1
I have seen countless amazing agents still dominate local areas, and others who seem to be falling by the wayside.
Interesting times ahead.
fair point,
Independent agents cant afford a £10m sponsorship deal but we can support local initiatives and we should, we live and work in the community so we should invest some of what we earn back in to it.
Agency is definitely changing
Genuine local agents looking out for their communities are on the rise
Regional and corporates on the decline
Total agree. Corporates in our part of the world are having a huge decline. We don’t go nuts sponsoring and spending as the point above correctly says we don’t have a £10m war chest. But a careful spend with monies or on social media on promoting or supporting local projects really works imo.
I’d have thought PB would just sponsor individual events instead.
Maybe the High Jump would be appropriate.
Haters be hating!!!! LOL. Why don’t you lot go and support another country you bitter lot. HAHHAHAHA! Go PB.
What like Aldi and Coca Cola have?? As if anyone, anyone links the good things that Team GB will deliver to the collective sense of national wellbeing to any sponsor. In the case of PB they’re just p**sing the rest of their OPM away before the whistle gets blown on them.
We do support our country which is why we don’t want to see lying cheats with empty promises representing our isle.
All these negative comments from old school agents stuck advertising on roundabouts and their local Esso forecourts!
While ‘new breed’ Agents plaster their “advertising” *********** (credit: Jonnie) on billboards and above the windows of tube trains…
If i had millions of pounds of other peoples money i would sponsor Man Utd etc. But i dont so we dont, but thankfully we advertise to local people going about their local business, so the local roundabouts and Esso forecourts work just fine.
Cheers for taking an interest though
What’s this? What’s this?!
We’ll have no trouble here.
This is a local agency. For local people. Isn’t that right Tubbs?
I thought the Golden Rings had left PB
For every “gold sold” there are plenty of good units that believed they could make it but just didn’t quite cross the line.
Team GB can only hope that their results overseas don’t mirror those of Bricks Upsetting the hosts and dropping the baton ..
It takes years to prepare for the Olympics…roughly the same time as it takes Purplebricks to sell most of their stock!
Why don’t you publish your dales stats honest John? Probably because they differ to what you tell your unsuspecting customers. Honestly John, you are a sad fool
I assume you mean sales stats, rather than “dales” stats do you Michelle?
Either way, what a load of jibberish from PIE’s resident troll.
I have no stats to publish as I retired some 4 years ago, but bravo, you’ve highlighted your stupidity and ignorance once more.
Ask yourself this; Who’s more foolish the fool, or the fool who follows him?
“Team GB, unlike Purplebricks we dont fall at the first hurdle”
On another note; talking to an agent friend of mine the other day.
How do PB manage to call themselves Estate Agents. They aren’t. They don’t offer any estate agency services and are really only a “portal listing agent” at best….
Can I take them to court..,? Gina Miller style.
What are they missing out of interest?
What are you blabbing about? Are really that stupid??
What a joke. These lot are delusional. They’ll be buying Notts County next….
PB, the Eddie the Eagle of estate agency, minus the charm.
Well let’s just hope the Olympic Committee don’t copy PB’s Mantra and start giving out medals before people have actually won something?
Brilliant
Ha ha.
They will have gone under by then. Olympics team should have done some due diligence on PB’s company accounts.
Hopefully Team GB will have taken their money upfront.
Remind me ……what happened to Purplebricks sponsorship of, was it the Australian Rugby Team?
Did Purplebricks honour that sponsorship deal in full, financially?
Get the shirts printed quick…!!!
Property poke in the eye, you’re an idiot!
Lockwood, good day to you too!
A last throw of the PurpleDice…..
Says more about the Olympics lack of governance .. what is going on at the moment?
Do athletes get a good medal just for entering a race? Purplebricks get paid for doing nothing.
Bless you, what are you going on about?? You make no sense. Say something interesting to prove you’re not a robot