#MarketingExcellenceAwards highlight: Forett goes virtual with property balloting

Taking home two bronze trophies at MARKETING-INTERACTIVE’s Marketing Excellence Awards is the campaign Forett @ Bukit Timah: First-ever virtual balloting by QingJian Realty and its agency Asia PR Werkz. The two bronze trophies were for Excellence in Personalisation Marketing and  Excellence in Social Media Marketing.

With COVID-19 taking the world by storm, disrupting businesses and people’s livelihood, the team knew it had to look at new ways to engage its customers. The property sector was especially hit given customers were unable to view show flats, and have interaction with property agents. Moreover, property is a sector where every purchase is a big decision and physical interaction with potential buyers has always been critical.

Challenge

FORETT was initially due to launch in June 2020 but sales galleries ended up closing due to the two month circuit breaker (CB) and a limited number of visitors were allowed in post the circuit breaker. As such, the launch had to be pushed back. Each day of delay was very costly for the developer and navigating through all the uncertainties of the COVID-19 world, on top of bracing escalating costs and potential loss of sales, proved to be a challenging period for the Forett team.

While Forett’s sales gallery eventually opened its doors on 18 July, it was only by appointment viewings from interested buyers. This was not an ideal situation as it gave little lead time to potential buyers to make their all important purchase decision of a unit at Forett.

At the end of the day, the most important day for any property developer is the booking day as it is the day where units are sold. The task on hand for the Forett team was to make the Booking Day a successful one, amidst all the challenges presented by COVID-19.

Strategy

In the pre-COVID world, a typical booking day would consist of a big fanfare at the site of the sales gallery with huge tentages, food and beverages, live performances, lucky draws and snaking queues of eager buyers waiting excitedly for their ballot numbers to be called, but with COVID-19 and with strict social distancing measures, there was no way Forett @ Bukit Timah could organise such a Booking Day.

The team had to rethink what balloting day would look like for Forett in the midst of the pandemic and how it could attract and sustain interest among potential buyers to the all-important balloting day.

Prior to Forett, QingJian Realty had launched JadeScape and there was a need to sustain general interest from both the public as well as the property agents during the circuit breaker period. Hence, QingJian Realty, started a series of Zoom webinars to speak on different themes about the property. Some of these webinars were tailored to continually interest and engage with the property agents during this period, so that Qingjian Realty would remain top of mind. Others were streamed live on Facebook to engage the general public on topics pertaining to property investment.

These webinars saw hundreds of agents joining in every session and thousands of views on the Facebook Live Videos every Sunday afternoon. This indicated to the team that there is demand for content about property and buyers are still interested in purchasing private properties despite the pandemic and gloomy economic outlook.

When the team got stuck with the challenge of organising a Balloting Day for Forett @ Bukit Timah, the success of these virtual webinars sparked off a novel, yet very risky idea that could possibly be the solution- The first-ever virtual property balloting day.

Execution

The Concept was that of an infotainment program brought LIVE on Facebook. This would consist of a fun-filled and exciting day where buyers and potential buyers would be able to witness their ballots being picked “LIVE” from any device, anywhere.

On top of it, Virtual quizzes and great prizes were also up for Grabs and the saw the teams at QingJian Realty, Asia PR Werkz and FLY Entertainment come together to execute this ‘LIVE’ balloting day. By the time the idea approved by the management, the working team were left with less than four weeks to put the show together.

It was decided that veteran host Irene Ang and Yen Chong, deputy general manager for QingJian Realty would helm the entire three hour show. While the ballot was going on, audiences would be engaged to watch highly entertaining and humorous videos about Forett @ Bukit Timah and the programme was set on the auspicious date of 8 August 2020. The ‘LIVE’ balloting session was a three hour long programme packed with giveaways, live interviews and of course, the actual balloting of units.

There were also interviews with industry experts to talk about the benefits of investing in the property and how to do legacy planning for a freehold property such as Forett At Bukit Timah.

Results

The show ended up as a success with with 30% of its 633-unit freehold units purchased that weekend which was above industry performance to achieve 30% sales on a Booking Day. This result was achieved in the midst of a gloomy outlook with the pandemic.

The Virtual Balloting Day caught the attention of many industry players who were surprised by the daring move. On social media, the virtual Booking day ‘LIVE’ video garnered a reach of 57,148 and over Comments and  772 shares. There were reactions of over 6,447 and engagement rate of 14%.