Love or loathe them, it has to be said real estate agents have arguably mastered the art of social media and its propensity for shameless self promotion better than many other small businesses have.
One realtor who’s been using social to drum up sales for some time is New Yorker Anthony Bernardo (AKA Tony B) from Island Wide Realty on Staten Island.
Bernardo’s social posts have garnered him a mini cult following and he even sells souvenir hats and T-shirts out of his office to his fans.
Now, one of the biggest creative agencies on the planet, WPP’s Ogilvy, has become such a fan of Tony B’s work that the two went and made an ad together.
According to reports on the US media site AdAge, Tony B’s videos caught the eye of Ogilvy North America’s chief creative officer Chris Beresford-Hill who thought the real estate agent could do with a dose of top-tier creative.
Enlisting famed ad director Randy Krallman, the duo ultimately talked a reluctant Tony B into agreeing to the ad.
Krallman telling AdAge: “We both loved the notion of using Ogilvy and [Krallman’s production company] Smuggler’s resources to do for Tony what we do for giant companies.”
He added: “Rather than try to emulate his social media – you can’t improve on perfection – the idea was to have the creatives and Tony write his dream commercial to showcase his business for locals that might not be aware of his social media presence.”
Anyway, the ad got made and comes complete with a very oddball twist. Watch it below:
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