A model from Saks Fifth Avenue stands next to the grand staircase during an open house event by Michael Saunders & Company at a mansion on North Casey Key. (Staff photo / Mike Lang)
Before entering through a Casey Key mansion’s arched doors to attend a “VIP reception” to spur a sale in November, guests first had to navigate their way through a jaw-dropping array of luxury automobiles — Lamborghini, Bentley, Rolls-Royce, Porsche, Mercedes-Benz and a reproduction 1936 Auburn Boattail Speedster — parked in the 6,600-square-foot home’s motor court.
A model from Saks Fifth Avenue stands next to the grand staircase during an open house event by Michael Saunders & Company at a mansion on North Casey Key. (Staff photo / Mike Lang)
A few weeks later — and also on Casey Key — guests at a 10,000-square-foot, $15 million mansion for sale were greeted by Saks Fifth Avenue models who offered perfumes and skin care products in the oversized master bathroom.
In the Sarasota Ranch Club recently, a chef displayed his skills in the enormous kitchen of a 7,200-square-foot, $2.6 million listing.
For many high-end properties, marketing strategies have moved well beyond advertisements, brochures and standard open houses.
“These aren’t fruit-and-cheese trays anymore,” said Sarasota caterer Phil Mancini, proprietor of upscale Sarasota restaurant Michael’s on East.
Instead, as the global real estate market grows ever more competitive, companies are creating “experiences” for potential elite buyers by partnering with chefs, musicians, jewelers and luxury car dealers.
“It is a good way for that house to be talked about, and that is our goal,” said Daniel Matusiak, of Action Realty, who produced the November event on Casey Key.
He spent $63 per guest on expenses, or $9,700.
“We need more than that (typical advertising) for this kind of property — and it works very well,” Matusiak said.
He went to Dimmitt Automotive Group in Tampa, Lamborghini Sarasota, Ideal Classic Cars in Venice and Suncoast Porsche with a proposal.
“I told them, ‘I will give you the venue, pay for the food and drink. You bring me cars and you invite, each of you, 25 of your best clients.’ With that, I get a new network coming in — people I have never met before.”
At his third such event, Matusiak exposed potential customers to jewelers — Otto’s Custom Jewelry of St. Armands — private bankers and other luxury retailers.
“They often can do business in a non-business environment, because they’re more relaxed,” Matusiak said. “Luxury retailers like to be a part of that.
“For me, it brings people into the house, and they are talking about it.”
Apparently, some of them are doing more than talking, said Jerry Collins, owner of Casa de las Olas.
“We have a showing on the 20th, and we have had several inquiries,” said Collins, who contributed his own Rolls-Royce, Bentley and McLaren to the display of luxury autos.
The party’s back
Of course, amped-up marketing isn’t completely new.
“We used to do these parties all the time,” said Deborah Beacham, a top-selling agent with brokerage Michael Saunders & Co. “With the market coming back, Realtors are getting creative and we are seeing more of these events.”
Such parties may target the well-to-do, but also they are a good example on how Southwest Florida’s incoming wealth wave is creating trickle-down economics.
With a packed bookings calendar for the 2014-15 season, Mancini went on a hiring spree last summer for Michael’s.
“Had I not done that hiring in the summer, I would not have been able to accomplish all these parties this season,” Mancini said. “We are 35-37 percent up in business.”
Jeff Hoffman, right, with Jo Malone London, helps Sandy Snyder, left, and Debbie Toale, center, as they browse perfumes and skin care products in the master bathroom of a mansion on North Casey Key during an open house event put on by Michael Saunders & Company. Musicians in the background, perform for guests. (Staff photo / Mike Lang)
Realtor clients, he says, “want the level of the catering that matches the level of the home. If you have a $10 million home, you are not going to put out a fruit-and-cheese tray.”
Changes go well beyond food. As the real estate market improves, brokerages are spending marketing dollars in many new ways, said Jen Horvat, director of marketing for Michael Saunders & Co.
Her 10-person team is emphasizing “the experience at the event,” Horvat said. “We might pay more for the entertainment, or do a video. We might do more with the invitation and a gift presented to each guest.
“It is about creating an experience, and using social media . . . so the event carries on afterwards,” she said.
“You can expose a high-end property and make it an experience with a cultural organization — fine wines, great chefs. People want that kind of experience when they live in the house, so why not introduce that to them when you are showing the home to them?” said Saunders, the brokerage’s CEO, herself no stranger to creative and upscale marketing.
Though its typically costs more, well-heeled sellers of high-end homes often feel such marketing is necessary to attract qualified buyers.
Often, such events top $5,000 to run, or about 10 percent of a typical $50,000 marketing budget for a waterfront mansion priced at $10 million or more.
"Casa de las Olas" on Casey Key was the site of a luxury real estate event on Nov. 13. (Staff photo / Harold Bubil)
Bills are usually split between agents, brokers and sometimes sellers. But at Casa de las Olas, Matusiak footed the bill and the homeowner paid nothing.
Car dealers, perfume sellers and jewelers who bring their goods to luxury home events usually cover their own expenses, in return for venue access.
Locally, luxury events were revived in 2013 when Thomas Netzel at Premier Sotheby’s International Realty brought in a French chef to his Country Club Shores waterfront listing — a $3.5 million house with French decor inside. He called the event the “French Connection.”
That same year, J.P. King Auction Co. held an unsuccessful auction to promote Carol Clark’s listing of the DeVita Ranch in Venice. Clark’s colleague at Premier Sotheby’s, Joel Schemmel, held an architectural competition for his mostly vacant, $12.9 million property listing in Indian Beach, which is still for sale.
Brainstorming
In Southwest Florida, one of the more creative — and successful — marketing efforts of the past year was an online video Saunders’ marketing team produced to showcase an 8,500-square-foot mansion at 1459 Bay Pointe Drive.
In the fantasy video, a couple is preparing for a night at the ballet. After they leave the house, a ballet dancer leaps from a painting in the house’s main hall and dances around the mansion for a night of freedom.
When the couple returns home, the dancer jumps back into the picture frame — but assumes a different pose. Tired, the man of the house does a double-take at the painting, but then shrugs and retires.
The video, which cost Saunders about $10,000 to produce, got a lot of attention. But the house, a Kim and Michael Ogilvie listing on Bay Point Drive, is still for sale at $8 million.
“The owners of the house came to us and said, ‘What can we do to create some buzz?' ” Horvat said. “I sent an email to the marketing team and got back 15 different ideas, and one just stuck.”
Such brainstorming is typical. After settling on the ballet theme, content coordinator Kathryn Parks and copy writer Lucy Hope did pre-production, including story boards. They collaborated with Mark Palmer, of Mars Vision Productions, who handled the video and post-production work.
The role of the dancer was played by Victoria Hullard of the Sarasota Ballet. Hullard did not get paid, though the ballet got credit, Horvat added.
“The sale of these large homes employs 40 people out of this office,” Horvat said of Saunders’ technology center on Orange Avenue. “It is an industry, and it has made this world go ‘round for a very long time.”
Despite the increasing popularity of creative marketing events, Horvat says they must be deployed judiciously, and for a specific target market. It doesn’t make sense to overspend on marketing for a home in a more moderate price range.
“Once our agents launch a property, we tell them to see what the response is,” Horvat said. “Figure out, of the people who come see the house, if they are not offering on it right away, what are their hot points, what are the selling points?”
There also is little need to produce an expensive special event if market response is initially positive, Horvat said.
“The challenge is, if you have too many of them, they start to become similar and they become noise,” Horvat said of the ultra marketing events.
“What we are telling our agent is, use them in a smart way — don’t have an event just to have an event. Use it because a house has something unique to showcase, or because the house might not convey through photography.
On Dec. 8, Saunders held an event at the Gunther estate, which is listed by Kelly Quigley and Linda Dickinson of the firm at $15 million. The theme of the Casey Key event was “Brunch in Jayne’s Boudoir.”
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Michael’s on East catered the food, but it was “mostly a ladies’ fashion show co-hosted with Saks Fifth Avenue,” Horvat said. “For the men, however, we had ‘Billiards & Bloody Marys’ in the home’s bayfront lounge.”
Mancini, for one, sees such events only ramping up.
“This year, something has happened, and I don’t see it stopping,” he said. “It is not about price, it is about quality. They want the best of the best.”
