Agency uses cheesy broker photos to sell Realtor-driven Web sites

BY BOB RAYNER
TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER

February 12, 2006

Here's a daring approach to advertising: Create a campaign that pokes fun at the target market.

Planet Central, an ad agency with headquarters here and New Jersey, believes it's a winning strategy.

The agency just unveiled a national campaign designed to persuade real estate agents to create personal Web pages using Register.com, a New York firm that sells Internet domain names and Web-site services.

The hook: a humorous take on the sometimes strange photographs that real estate agents use to market themselves.

"This is an inside joke on Realtors flashing their photos everywhere they go," said Steve St. Clair, Planet Central's creative director. "Maybe they shouldn't sometimes."

The campaign began this week with an ad in Realtor magazine, which has a national circulation of more than 1 million.

The ad is dominated by a goofy, smiling face and directs you to the companion Web site: www.CheesyBrokerPhotos.com.

"You're always looking for ways to drive people to the Web as fast as you can," St. Clair said.

Once you've arrived at the site, you're greeted by more cheesy photos -- and information about how Register.com can help a real estate agent create a Web site that's not cheesy at all. A basic, five-page site costs $5.95 per month, plus $35 a year for the domain name.

Terry Fink, president of Planet Central and head of its Richmond office, said the ad is designed to get real estate agents talking. Once they've checked out the site, he hopes they'll let their colleagues know about it.

"That's key -- how to make it viral inside the business," St. Clair said. Viral marketing is the digital version of word of mouth. If a Web site is entertaining enough, people will point their buddies to it.

"We're running an ad that is quick and informative. It doesn't sell anything, but it sends people to a fun Web site," Fink said.

The ad will run again next month in the same magazine and is supported by direct mail and e-mail campaigns.

Fink declined to discuss the value of the project, but said if this one succeeds, it could help the 16-employee agency win more work with Register.com, which is the third-largest domain-name business in the country.

The campaign is targeting individual real estate agents, not the big firms they might work for, as well as smaller agencies.

"An agent is often competing with the agent down the hall," Fink said. "They're trying to build a brand of their own."

So is it possible that some Realtors will be turned off by the cheesy photo gags?

"There's a chance every time you take a humorous approach that you're going to offend someone," St. Clair said. "We decided to take a risk of offending a few in order to get the other 800,000 interested"