A cheeky and hopeful new campaign for Auckland property development company Du Val Group attracting the attention of first home buyers and investors.
The campaign, developed by The Grace Agency, presents the option of home ownership in South or West Auckland alongside the realities of living in a rental dive or owning a garden shed in the central suburbs.
Gabrielle Byfield, Chief Marketing Officer for the Du Val Group of companies, says the campaign is deliberately provocative, comparing owning and living in one of Du Val’s properties across South Auckland and West Auckland, with living in a rental property in suburbs such as Mt Eden, Newmarket, or Ponsonby with flatmates.
“Straplines such as ‘Own a brand new designer home in South Auckland or own a garden shed in Ponsonby’, or ‘Own a modern designer home in South Auckland or continue to flat with your 5 mates in Grey Lynn’ aim to get cut through with people paying around $800 a week or more in rent.
“The campaign is designed to get people talking and wanting to find out more and to see that property ownership is possible for them.”
Byfield says that while this is a ‘brand’ campaign, it is built to generate interest amongst first-home buyers.
“With the government increasing the price cap for these buyers from $700,000 to $875,000 [in Auckland], and removing the cap for First Home Loan applications, it felt like the right time to talk positively about being able to afford to buy a house.”
She says within 24 hours of the campaign launching across Auckland billboards and social media channels, it has generated over 100 genuine sales leads.
“It was phenomenal; the video we put on YouTube was our best performing ever, and we had over 50,000 impressions on Facebook alone.
“After just one week in the market, sales leads doubled to be well over 1,000,” says Byfield.
This she puts down to there being a lot of talk in the property and construction market about the market being tough which can mean people don’t think home ownership or investing in a rental property is achievable.
“Yes, Covid-19 has had an impact on the market, but existing supply chain issues and increasing build costs will continue to have a significant bearing on home ownership. Du Val Group is addressing these challenges by leveraging the company’s size and the scale of the projects to do things differently and ensure we can deliver high-quality, affordable homes.”
Du Val’s property sites are located in some of Auckland’s highest growth areas Byfield says and are near key transport amenities – something desirable for both first home buyers and rental property investors.
“We wanted a campaign that stood out and really resonated with our younger audience, to get them seriously considering how they can get onto the property ladder.
“We have definitely had some fun with the creative and highlighting the ‘not so good’ aspects of renting. The campaign mirrors Du Val’s brand; strong, innovative, cheeky, bold, and unafraid to challenge the status quo,” she says.
