55% of our ad spends are on digital platforms: Vimesh P, Casagrand

With a regional perspective, Vimesh P sheds light on the marketing initiatives of Casagrand India, the brand's growth and expansion strategy and the relevance of social media as a key communication medium for real estate sector.

As real estate marketing witnesses massive changes while showcasing recovery in the market, we speak with Vimesh P, VP - Marketing, Casagrand Builder, to understand the evolving industry, real estate marketing trends, the brand's social media strategy, and tips for the marketers to ace 2022.

Edited Excerpts

You recently roped in Vijay Sethupati, the Tamil actor for CASAGRAND FirstCity Phase-II launch. What was the idea behind it? Please take us through the campaign. How does it help you to achieve the business objectives?

The main objective of the TVC was to communicate that one can enjoy an unparalleled lifestyle at a much affordable price.

The idea behind roping in Vijay Sethupathi was the fact that he is extremely loved by the people and has the ability to make one believe in materializing dreams through his approach in an effortless manner. We believed that roping in Makkal Selvan to launch phase II of CASAGRAND FirstCity will help share the entire thought behind the project and connect our brand imagery whilst strengthening the brand’s credibility as well.

We did recover our costs for the celebrity campaign and were able to achieve 200 crore sales from the campaign.

We notice a regional language touch/connect for most of your campaigns. From a hyper-local perspective, which are your strongest markets & why?

Unlike any other market, Chennai has been end-user-driven. We have always strived to engage with individuals on a personal level. People become enthralled by vernacular campaigns since they are able to access information in their regional language. Regional content and communications tend to establish a better customer connection as people value their native language and want to remain close to their culture and history.

As there is no one-stop solution, it is necessary to understand the local region before developing any regional communication strategy. We have a strong market presence in Chennai, Bangalore, and Coimbatore.

Do you intend to expand to other cities in India, too? What kind of a role does vernacular play in the ultimate objective of moving units?

We are currently present across Chennai, Bangalore, and Coimbatore and are all set to enter the Hyderabad real estate market.

The vernacular approach plays a crucial role in marketing especially in sectors like real estate. Vernacular ads have helped CASAGRAND to connect with homebuyers well and we have always got a positive response from vernacular advertisements. It helps us in connecting with homebuyers from niche target groups and locations.

From a region perspective, which are the top consumer consumption trends for the brand that you notice as we move to the end of the year?

Few trends that are expected to continue and rule the residential market in 2022 include:

• The increased interest in affordable/mid-sized homes. Residential projects that fall between price ranges of 45 to 80 lakhs are expected to witness huge demand from homebuyers.
• From a  regional perspective, micro-markets across cities have been seeing a surge in the interest of homebuyers owing to various factors like - keeping away from the bustle of the city, enjoying a serene and holistic lifestyle while staying in close proximity to all essentials and entertainment while having easier access to major parts of the city.
• Other trends in the same year account for villas emerging as the preferred real estate option. During recent times, homebuyers have shifted towards individual villa developments as they come along with various benefits like high capital appreciation, flexibility to upgrade or modify the property, high return on investments, and much more. 
• Moreover, the demand for plotted developments is also rising steadily in the recent quarters.

Please take us through your marketing mix for this quarter and the budget allocated to each of the channels.

Budget differs from property to property based on the location, amenities provided to the homebuyers.

The percentage of the launches numbers are as follows - 55% of our ad spends on the digital platforms, Online 50%, 20% print, 10% TV,  Radio 7% referral and 12% others.

Has the brand commenced on-ground events and walk-ins, too? Is social media helpful in creating leads and footfalls for a high-investment category like Real Estate?

We are not conducting BTL events on our own as such, but we have been participating in various property expos, which in return has helped us garner a phenomenal response. While we have resumed operations across all our sites post the lockdown, we have been witnessing a good number of walk-ins, and property visits.

Social media is our most important tool currently as we generate 60% of our leads through the same.

Also, our activation will be 360 degrees with plans across different mediums like online and print.

Also read: Social Throwback 2021: A year of digital home-buyers in real estate marketing…

How are the social channels impactful for lead generation campaigns? Please take us through your in-depth social media strategy

The importance of social media for real estate cannot be understated since it includes activities undertaken by businesses on these platforms to acquire new leads. Our marketing mix looks at feeding leads into the sales funnel, qualifying the leads through different channels (chatbots, email, social, phone, meeting, or sales call), and then converting the prospects into actual sales.

Facebook and Instagram is a no brainer and a staple advertising platform for us because Facebook`s consumer demographics constitute the audience for any given actual property or commercial enterprise starting from age and income.

Since we are a B2C community, LinkedIn is not always a place for us to identify actual leads. However, it has great potential to attract investors and showcase our experience. 

Using Twitter effectively could be a challenge. However, with the use of various tools provided on the platform we are able to listen, respond and interact with our followers.

What is your digital marketing strategy at this time? Which social media platforms yield the maximum results for you in terms of ROI?

With the huge growth in digital consumption, social media dependence, and other digital sources for news and entertainment, our ad spend in this segment has increased significantly. Our digital promotions are majorly across - Facebook, Google, property portals, Native Ads, SMS, email blasts, and SEO marketing, where we run 360-degrees' campaigns.

What are the tools or best practices that work the best for the brand as part of the overall marketing strategy?

Each of the tools given below is an essential component of a successful marketing strategy. Being proficient in these tools helps reduce our man-hours and gives our real estate brand a tremendous output. Some of the best practices which will help the brand grow are as follows.

• Content Creation 
• AI
• Reputation Management
• Trends
•  Chatbots

3 tips for the Real Estate marketers for 2022

The COVID-19 pandemic has created an adverse impact on the entire realty market, changing the marketing landscape of the industry. From unconventional advertising campaigns to innovative marketing strategies, it is time for real estate marketers to revamp their strategies to maintain a competitive edge in 2022.

Three tips for real estate marketers for 2022 include - leveraging social media, automation, content marketing, and focusing on AI.

With the steady decline of in-person interactions and increased social media dependence, it is essential for the real estate sector to develop on these trends as more and more people have resorted to the Internet to connect with the right professionals while buying a new property. Thus, it is the need of the hour for the marketers to establish a robust online presence and also use data interpretation of research studies based on marketing.