Today’s millennials are fast turning their backs on traditional marketing, instead choosing to consume and interact through virtual reality.
This willingness to buy into the imaginary and immaterial is leveraging into tangible sales, according to Marshall White Projects Director Leonard Teplin.
“This generation has changed the game; they are heavily reliant on the digital sphere and entrust it with major life decisions,” says Marshall White Projects Director, Leonard Teplin.
Marshall White Projects has seen success in the digital sphere, putting an apartment complex at 308 Carlisle Street, Balaclava on to market without a display suite nor budget for print advertising.
Each of the Victorian property's 45 apartments were sold in under six weeks, with the majority of purchasers aged between 25 and 35.
“These buyers are far savvier for having grown up in a digital landscape, their discerning tastes transcend the physical with renders, fly throughs and 3D floorplans of greater value to them than a stagnant display suite,” Mr Teplin said.
Marshall White Projects have taken advantage of this changing market before, with a sale earlier this year of 27 luxury apartments at High & Spring in the same timeframe without any traditional or digital advertising.
As a result, the sales achieved an average of approximately $1,050,000 per apartment.
“Buyers are overloaded with choice and bombarded with advertisements, which has made them less perceptible to traditional marketing tactics,” comments Teplin, who sees this as an opportunity to better invest the hundreds of thousands of dollars developers would spend on lavish display suites into innovative alternatives that are not only cost and time effective, but more authentic and impactful.
“In order to be effective you must know your audience, what they value, who they trust, where they source their information – these things often hold more significance than their gender or profession and allow us to develop tailored marketing strategies that resonate with our buyers on a deeper level.”
Mr Teplin believes that the embrace of the digital sphere simplifies the sales process and leverages technology, videography, photography, renders, brand partnerships, and direct marketing to achieve a far more cost effect result within the shortest possible time frame.
