The Douglas and Gordon Corporate Video
Why do we do it? This week, my eldest daughter texted me from Notting Hill tube station to say she had seen “two estate agents in branded shirts trying to hand apples to disinterested commuters, extraordinary!” Interesting, certainly. No sooner did I get into my office than I picked up a magazine featuring a picture of a rival estate agent across the street from the apple givers with all their staff lined up on the pavement alongside giant red letters (an idea incidentally that D&G ran in our 2008 corporate campaign but they do say that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery). You may ask have these people all gone insane? No, they are simply trying to be different. Does it work, I hear you ask. What is the point of it? Well, for a start, even though they are direct competitors of mine, I am writing about them now.
The three key areas of running any business are to firstly, continually improve your people. Secondly, to continually improve your offering, by which I mean the service that you provide. For instance, at D&G we have just launched our new website which was 18 months in the making, cost a ridiculous sum and luckily (even if I do say so myself), is an outstanding offering. Apart from looking stunning and being incredibly intuitive, the property search section is a thing of wonder and unrivalled. The third key area is to continually differentiate.
Creating a memorable brand and even more importantly maintaining that presence is increasingly challenging when the marketplace is as competitive as it is in Central London. It is important for the public, your competitors and your own employees that you are seen to be doing your utmost at all times to stand out from the crowd, to show people that you truly are innovative and that you have created a brand that people want to be associated with. To that end, I compliment the two agents mentioned earlier for their endeavours. However, I can safely say that when it comes to standing out from the crowd, the new Douglas & Gordon corporate video is unlike anything you will have ever seen. To truly appreciate our latest work, I would ask you to check out the videos of one or other of the larger international agents first, then watch “the D&G offering”. You will hopefully find it funny, some of you may easily be shocked, but one thing I do know is that this is one innovation that will be talked about for some time…..and isn’t that the whole point?
Ivor Dickinson - Managing Director, Douglas & Gordon