October 1st, 2010

Weekly Roundup

By Jackie Berg, Marketing Director

• What is it about the nature of a successful startup that gives it an edge over competitors? (via ReadWriteWeb):

“Friday morning, Wesabe co-founder Marc Hedlund posted a blog titled ‘Why Wesabe Lost to Mint’  in which he explains his opinions on just that. From his perspective (which he admits is anything but un-biased), Mint won because they hustled to make users happy – not one of the other ‘utter crap’ reasons he disagrees with.”

• Moving to San Diego? Our client Z57 is among the best for workplace happiness (via RISMedia):

“Z57 Inc., a real estate online marketing company, was recognized as one of San Diego’s top three places to work. In the San Diego Union-Tribune’s 14th annual 2010 San Diego’s Best Readers’ Poll, Z57 ranked third in the San Diego Life category of Best Place to Work. Z57 has 155 employees and serves thousands of real estate industry clients nationwide.”

• A traditional sales perspective contrasts the technology race (via Inman):

“The race for better and faster technology has arguably replaced the rat race. We all know now who moved our cheese: Technology did. Call me old-fashioned, but I prefer the rat race. At least I knew where I was going, what I had to do, and who would win.”

• Our friends at Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate are recognized for outstanding web development (via RISMedia):

“Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate LLC announced that it has received a Web Marketing Association 2010 WebAward for Outstanding Achievement in Web Development. The Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate website scored high marks for design, innovation, content, technology, interactivity, copywriting and ease of use. The award was chosen by independent judges from around the world who review sites in 96 industries.“

Tags: Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate, BHGRE, startup success, Z57.

June 24th, 2010

Onboard Clients Honored for Technology Innovation

By Michael Groysman, Marketing Intern

We aren’t the only ones who believe our clients are meeting today’s consumer in the places and ways they expect to search for homes. Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate, Realtor.com, Redfin, and ZipRealty were just named as finalists in the 2010 Inman News Innovator Awards in the ‘New Technology’ category.

Onboard Informatics would like to congratulate each of our clients for bringing such forward thinking ideas into our industry and for blazing trails in the midst of an ever changing market.

Other applications nominated for the ‘New Technology’ category are DocuSign ESIGNControl, NearBuy Real Estate Search, Roost Social Real Estate Platform (Facebook), Trulia, Walk Score, and Zillow’s iPad app.

Nearly every contender for most innovative new technology is in the mobile arena. In 2009′s Most Innovative New Technology category, there was only one mobile nominee.

The Inman Innovator Awards will also honor innovations in brokerages and franchises, web services, blogs, and media sites. Onboard will once again be present at the event rooting everyone on. Swing by booth #100 and say hello if you are coming to the show.

If you haven’t seen our clients’ applications, stop over to their sites to get a look before the show:

• Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate Home Selection Assistant app
• Realtor.com app
• Redfin app
• ZipRealty HomeScan app

Best of luck to the nominees!

Tags: BHGRE, Inman Innovator Awards 2010, Inman SF, realtor.com, Redfin, ZipRealty.

June 2nd, 2010

Franchises Merging Technology with Direct Marketing

By Jackie Berg, Marketing Director

Don’t rule out direct marketing just yet. Two major franchise networks and Onboard clients recently launched direct  platforms that are designed to generate leads and automate marketing efforts for agents, as highlighted in this article on Inman today.

• Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate franchise network launched PinPoint this week. Brokers and agents can identify potential clients and to create campaigns through custom demographic and geographic segmentation. Marketing campaigns will be segmented by life stage segments, such as first-time buyers without children and empty nesters. BHGRE will be leveraging the database of consumers who interact with Meredith Corporation’s brands. CEO Sherry Chris emphasized the privacy and confidentiality throughout the fulfillment process.

• Weichert introduced LeadLink in April in conjunction with Quantum Digital. This platform generates a Just Listed card for each new Weichert listing. When a new listing is entered into the MLS, LeadLink pulls relevant data and key photos into a direct mail template. The sales associate can then immediately place an order to send postcards to the 50 addresses surrounding that particular home. These postcards are designed to drive traffic to a customized web page where visitors can view additional property details and request further information.

Although they leverage different types of segmentation, these new direct strategies represent an interesting mix of digital components and traditional marketing pieces.

Tags: BHGRE, real estate direct marketing, Weichert Realtors.

March 19th, 2010

Weekly Roundup

By Jackie Berg, Marketing Director

• One of our client’s franchised companies, BHGRE Rand Realty, was ranked #1 by GHVMLS with 20,000+ uniques/day (via RISMedia):

“In addition to providing information from all five Multiple Listing Services serving the Hudson Valley, the website features: Community profiles describing dozens of towns and cities throughout the Hudson Valley; Blogs analyzing market trends and industry news; Community Events listings; Instructional videos on topics such as home staging and interior design and a “Live” section with dozens of articles and how-to lessons from Better Homes and Gardens magazine on remodeling, interior design, landscaping and green living.”

• Open Video Alliance plays with the idea of collaborative video on Wikipedia (via ReadWriteWeb):

“The project encourages Wikipedia users to add videos using the ’100% free and open source video stack powered by HTML5 and Theora’ that is the standard for the site. Our contention, however, is that while technical issues in adding media have certainly had a limiting role, is this all that has kept multimedia from dotting the pages of our favorite collaborative encyclopedia? Can video be collaborative? While we wonder about the collaborative nature of the site versus the more fixed nature of video, others have already been hard at work making collaborative video a (potential) reality.”

• If you use Google for scheduling meetings, your life just got a little easier (via ReadWriteWeb):

“If you have ever tried to reschedule a meeting that includes more than two people, a conference room, equipment and a team that is distributed across multiple time zones, you know how hard this can be.With Smart Rescheduler, Google Calendar will give you a set of alternative dates based on a ranking algorithm that keeps everybody’s availability and other criteria in mind.”

• Google, Intel, and Sony form a partnership to bring Google TV into the living room (via The New York Times):

“The move is an effort by Google and Intel to extend their dominance of computing to television, an arena where they have little sway. For Sony, which has struggled to retain a pricing and technological advantage in the competitive TV hardware market, the partnership is an effort to get a leg up on competitors.”

Tags: BHG, BHGRE, BHGRE Rand Realty, Google calendar, GoogleTV, productivity, video on Wikipedia.