Lifestyle Videos: The New Luxury Real Estate Trend
Having great videos and photography for your digital marketing has become mandatory in the real estate industry. To stand above the crowd, some agents are hiring professional videographers to produce “lifestyle videos,” a popular luxury real estate trend.
Here’s an example from video production company, One Market Media.
The video features actors utilizing all of the rooms of the home. They’re watching TV and drinking wine in the living room, they’re bathing in the master bath, they’re having fancy dinner in the dining room—basically living the millionaire lifestyle. Aerial footage, music, and agent branding round out this visually appealing mini film.
One Market Media started producing these videos because they found them inspiring to those interested in the high-end market. “When you’re selling luxury properties you’re not just selling a commodity, you’re selling something more,” says Jimm Fox of One Market Media. “You can’t show that lifestyle without people.”
Fox goes on to say that these videos are great for the high market for many reasons: sellers expect agents to do everything they can to sell their high-end home, luxury properties are usually more unique and demand more engaging visual marketing, and it makes sense to showcase the lifestyle associated with high-end properties.
Stephen Garner is the president of Hub Media Company, a production company that makes lifestyle videos. He says there are several components that make up a successful lifestyle video: the property, the story, lighting, and the people—the right people. “They need to be attractive and represent the target market of the video,” says Garner. “It won’t help much to have beautiful 20 somethings in a lifestyle video if the target market is a baby boomer.”
Some production companies and agents take these components a step further with with movie scripts, plot lines, and action scenes resulting in mini-action flicks. Some are critical about these types of lifestyle videos, however Jimm Fox of One Market Media says: “There is no ‘over the top’ because the purpose of the video is to draw attention to house. So if you create a terrific little mini-drama that millions watch and the property is a big part of that—great!”
Lifestyle videos will be costly. Expect to shell out anywhere from $2,000 to $10,000. “It’s not uncommon for a lifestyle video to cost $20,000 plus in markets like Los Angeles, Malibu, Miami, and New York City,” says Garner. Other factors that might affect pricing are the amount of people and equipment needed to shoot and the experience of the production company.
If you’re on a tight schedule, an experienced production company can turn around a video in little over a week. Short turnaround times are usually doable if you give your videographers enough notice and pay expedite fees. In most cases, the more time producers have on a video, the better product they will be able to create.
Whether or not you decide to pull the trigger on a lifestyle video, remember that high-end homes need high-end marketing. Invest in production companies that know what they’re doing. If you create a bad or average marketing plan, you risk harming the potential sale of your property.
Have we left out any lifestyle video tips? We would love to hear yours! Just head over to our Facebook page and share yours with us!
