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Home is where the Harcourts agent is: the real estate company gets emotive with first national brand campaign in nearly a decade

Ads for real estate companies have long been filled with happy families, keys and smiling real estate agents and while these same tropes still apply, recently real estate companys’ ads have become a lot more heartwarming. A campaign for Harcourts via Contagion called ‘With you all the way’ illustrates this, and follows a young family and their experience as time passes and they move from house to house through a longstanding relationship with Harcourts.

A TVC for the campaign tells the story of a couple moving through several homes as their family grows and then contracts again as their grown-up children leave home.

Along the way there’s laughter, tears, celebration, sad farewells and an awkward scene where the father of the family walks in on his son mid make-out session with a girl.

The campaign will also include digital advertising across key websites, according to a release.

The idea of a “time-lapse” type ad showing the family through its stages of growth and the relationship they build with their sales consultant along the way, came about very early in the process says Harcourts NZ CEO Hayden Duncan.

“From the outset it was really important the advertising campaign got to the heart of who Harcourts is. For us this business we are in is not about bricks and mortar, it’s about people, often making huge life decisions. Selling or buying a house is a rollercoaster of emotions, with ups and downs that can leave you begging to ride again or too frightened to ever give it another go.”

He says the story in the campaign helps Harcourts celebrate not only the relationships it builds, but the depth of experience and knowledge its team has, allowing it to do the best job for its clients.

“It also reflects our place as New Zealand’s most-trusted real estate brand, which is incredibly important to us,” he says.

Duncan says the time was right to give the brand a profile-raising push.

“It’s a fantastic time to be raising our game in terms of how we present ourselves. There are a huge number of new platforms, technologies and strategies to explore in our national marketing than ever before. We pride ourselves on being an innovator in our industry, so it seems the perfect time to present our story to as many people as possible.”

Contagion CEO Dean Taylor says it is great to see the ad finally realised after a long period of research and planning to make sure it would resonate with the audience.

“Harcourts is an ambitious company with an insatiable appetite for moving forward, but also one that connects extremely strongly with its clients,” he says.

“We think we’ve created something that represents all that Harcourts stands for.”

This is Contagion’s first major production for Harcourts since it won the full account in a pitch in May.

Another campaign released earlier this month for Bayleys via The Collective and shot by Robber’s Dog, similarly goes down the emotional route. The ad features a young boy who wants a bit more space to kick his ball around.

He looks at a few options online and eventually successfully sabotages the sale of a house he wants to buy with his vast riches, before being taken home by the real estate agent (and eventually being rewarded for his malfeasance with the house), the 60-second ad is the first piece of work created for the brand by The Collective.

Credits for current campaign

Client: Harcourts Real Estate New Zealand

CEO: Hayden Duncan

General manager: Niina Suhonen

National marketing Manager: Sharon Morey

Agency: Contagion

Planner: Dean Taylor

Client partners: Clare Van Tiel, Siva Clément

Creatives: Bridget Taylor, Verity Dookia

Design: Phila Lagaluga

Producer: Liz Garneau

Media: Richard Thompson, Suzie Thompson

Social: Tom Bates

Production partner: Thick As Thieves

Director: Alex Sutherland

Producer: Nik Beachman

Post production: Blockhead

Sound: The Coopers

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