Sheraz Dar, Marketing Director, DPG says:

“DPG has a portfolio of portal brands which enables us to cover the entire range of UK home searchers; something that we are uniquely placed to do.  While FindaProperty.com covers the mass market, PrimeLocation.com – the UK’s prime property portal – covers the top end of the market with an affluent and aspirational following. Promoting both brands in February is a powerful combination, which will deliver huge value to agents.”

Sheraz continues:

“The PrimeLocation.com TV ad is a humorous take on the lengths vendors can go to in order to achieve a sale in a tough market. It brings agents to the forefront by communicating that vendors should take advice from them when trying to secure a sale. This is specifically designed to drive more instructions and enquiries to agents”

And PrimeLocation.com has been hitting the right notes with its target audience. January 2012 saw its highest ever daily unique visitor number and monthly enquiries to agents were higher than any month in 2011. This success follows its strong marketing activity in 2011 that included TV advertising, high profile event partnerships such as Grand Designs Live, and print advertising in both national press and high end magazines such as Tatler and GQ.

See the PrimeLocation.com ad on TV on Sunday 19^th February or preview it here: http://www.youtube.com/user/primelocation

ENDS

For further press information please contact:

Johnny Newton   0207 432 4003 / 07798 646 563 / johnny.newton@tdpg.com.

Mobile is big and here to stay

Regulator Ofcom’s latest research reveals that a quarter of adults now have an iPhone, Blackberry or Android, and some 70% of all new handset sales are also smartphones, according to Kantar Worldpanel ComTech. Also, government research reveals that 45% of all people using the internet do so now using a mobile phone ⁽¹⁾.

This is driving online visits in the property market.  Approximately 500 estate agents⁽²⁾now have their own ‘app’ for at least one of the smartphone platforms and DPG is busy here as well, offering our users iPhone, Android and iPad apps for PrimeLocation.com and iPhone and Android apps for FindaProperty.com. See below for full list.

An App or a Mobile Site?

But although all this ‘apptivity’ is proof of our commitment to helping agents get leads from this exciting growth area, there is another important aspect to this.

Our research shows that when people pass ‘for sale’ boards or branch offices while out and about, they are more likely to search an agent’s name than look it up on an app, and therefore having a mobile friendly version of your own site is essential as smartphone use grows.

App use, figures from our now established mobile services show, is all about browsing, usually while people are at home relaxing and, the Ofcom research shows, often in very informal places such as in bed or even the bath.

DPG’s solutions & Links

And the DPG’s apps are proving popular at the moment, for example FindaProperty.com’s iPhone app has been downloaded 1.75 million times.

Download your own FindaProperty.com app for iPhone or Android, or one of the PrimeLocation.com mobile apps.

* Want help either optimising your site for mobile, or to create your own app? Then talk to DPG’s Business Services team.

Sources: (¹) Office for National Statistics, August 2011 (²) DPG internal research, 2012 (^TABLE) According to research on iTunes app store, on Android marketplace and using a mobile smartphone on 02.02.12

Sheraz Dar, Marketing Director, DPG, says:

“Agent enquiries are the lifeblood of our business, with everything we do centred around generating them. It’s for this reason that we are particularly delighted to report this step change increase”.

These enquiry levels accompany all time highs for home searcher visits³. DPG surpassed its previous monthly visits level by a significant margin, recording 19m visits to its websites in January⁴. A new daily high was also recorded, standing at 720,000.⁵

And DPG is also gaining ground on its competitors – the latest statistics from independent research agency, comScore, show that DPG narrowed the monthly unique visitor gap with Rightmove by a full 25%, while FindaProperty.com’s gap with 3^rd placed Zoopla increased six fold for the month⁶.

(^1,2) – DPG internal data, January 2012, monthly e-mail and telephone enquiries in January ^(3,4) – Cognesia, January 2012 (⁵) – Cognesia, 9^th January 2012. (⁶) – comScore, December 2011 (The most recent comScore report at 01.02.12)

Named ‘Enhanced Marketing’, our new advertising product is available to all DPG subscribers and comes in two forms – Featured Advertising and Promoted Property.

How does Featured Advertising work?
A limited number of slots are available at the top of each search within a postcode; just three for FindaProperty.com and two for PrimeLocation.com.

Richard Shamsi, DPG Chief Operating Officer, says: “Featured advertising has been severely diluted on many property portals by the sheer volume of available spaces per area. In short, there are too many for any brand to gain real standout. DPG’s version helps agents own their area; ideal for winning new instructions and shifting stock fast.”

What makes DPG’s Featured Advertising different?
Agents can customise each advert (example pictured, above and below) on a search results page by uploading their own creative to the slot; and can include, for example, a vendor or landlord offer.

Other benefits
Agents can choose to direct their traffic either to a property’s listing on FindaProperty.com or PrimeLocation.com – or to their own website, which has the potential to deliver thousands of visitors every month.

“If an agent acts quickly, they can get one or more of the slots in their area and keep them for as long as they want. This new style of advertising will help a brand stand-out from the crowd,” says Shamsi.

And there’s more.
DPG subscribers can now enhance their local presence by buying Promoted Property spots within the search results. Promoted properties achieve a greater stand-out within the property search results and are ideal to support difficult vendor or landlord relationships.

For more information visit the Enhanced Marketing page or call 0330 240 0011.

The new ad uses the same male actor/rapper from the first in the series, but this time he plays a granny on a mobility scooter (pictured) rapping about her need to downsize. See it during ITV’s Dancing on Ice or preview it here: http://rap.findaproperty.com/grannyrap/

The first ad in the series delivered immediate results, culminating in record monthly enquiries to member agents¹ and record monthly visits² to FindaProperty.com.

It was also named Ad of the day by Campaign Magazine and The Drum. We expect the second ad to be even more effective.

PrimeLocation.com will also be back on TV from mid February, following a record month in January for unique visitors to its site³.

The ad uses humour to prompt vendors to get in touch with their agents to seek advice on selling their home. See the PrimeLocation.com ad here http://www.youtube.com/user/primelocation

Sources:

(¹) DPG Internal data, January 2012 (^{2, 3}) Cognesia, January 2012

A strong start to 2012 has seen DPG deliver record home hunter enquiries to their member agents1. The new record equates to a staggering 47% increase in phone or e-mail enquiries versus the same period last year.2

Sheraz Dar, Marketing Director, DPG, says:

“Agent enquiries are the lifeblood of our business, with everything we do centred around generating them. It’s for this reason that we are particularly delighted to report this step change increase”.

These enquiry levels accompany all time highs for home searcher visits3. DPG surpassed its previous monthly visits level by a significant margin, recording 19m visits to its websites in January4. A new daily high was also recorded, standing at 720,000.5

And DPG is also gaining ground on its competitors – the latest statistics from independent research company, comScore, show that DPG, who rank second, narrowed the monthly unique visitor gap with Rightmove by a full 25% from November to December 20116, while FindaProperty.com’s gap with 3rd placed Zoopla increased six fold for the month7.

Sheraz says:

“While we are very pleased to see these results, we believe that this is only the beginning. Our campaign continues into February and agents are set to benefit even more.”

February’s marketing activity includes a new FindaProperty.com TV ad. This time it features a rapping granny, played by the same male actor in the current TV ad. A rapping competition will also be launched, and will be fully integrated into social networking sites. The new ad premieres this weekend, on Sunday 5th February. See it during ITV’s Dancing on Ice or preview it here: http://rap.findaproperty.com/grannyrap/

PrimeLocation.com will also be back on TV from mid February, following a record month in January for unique visitors to its site7. The ad uses humour to prompt vendors to get in touch with their agents to seek advice on selling their home. See the ad here http://www.youtube.com/user/primelocation

ENDS

Sources:

(1),(2) DPG internal data, January 2012, e-mail and telephone enquiries (3),(4),(7) – Cognesia, January 2012 (5) – Cognesia, 9th January 2012. (6) – comScore Media metrix, UK, December 2011 7 – comScore Media metrix, UK, Based on November 2011 to December 2011. Unique visitor comparison between Zoopla.co.uk and FindaProperty.com

For further press information please contact:

Johnny Newton 0207 432 4003 / 07798 646 563 / johnny.newton@tdpg.com.