How Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Created 500 Videos in 10 months
ABOUT BERKSHIRE HATHAWAY HOMESERVICES
$180 billion in real estate sales
Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices is a global residential real estate brokerage franchise network with more than 50,000 real estate professionals and nearly 1,500 offices across 12 countries including, the U.S., Canada, Mexico, Europe, the Middle East, The Bahamas and India. In 2021, the Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices global network represented more than $179.9 billion (USD) in real estate sales volume. The network, among the few organizations entrusted to use the world-renowned Berkshire Hathaway name, brings to the real estate market a definitive mark of trust, integrity, stability and longevity.
THE CHALLENGE
How to create thousands of videos for the state of California
Glen Wellbrock, Senior Director of Marketing, has always been a big fan of video content. After joining Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices California Properties in April 2019, he realized that the company only had one person creating real estate videos for the entire state. Glen wanted video to be a focus and a service that agents could request but understood that the volume of video production wouldn’t be able to be handled by one person.
Additionally, one of the most important things for Glen’s team of agents is the ability to have discussions with their sellers about their marketing strategy — essentially, how is the agent going to market the property with a view to close a sale?
We only had one person creating real estate videos for the entire state of California.
THE SOLUTION
Video production designed for scale
After assessing their current video creation workflow, which Glen found “laborious”, the team at Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices California Properties onboarded Lumen5, due to the platform’s ability to produce video content quickly and at scale.
The partnership between Lumen5 and BHHS California Properties is simple. When an agent gets a listing for a new home that they’re representing, they submit up to eight photos to the California Properties marketing team, who turn those images into a Lumen5 video. The video is then used in their social media strategy in the coming days.
By empowering the team at BHHS California Properties to use Lumen5 the real estate company has reduced video creation time from days to just six minutes.
Video provides the BHHS California Properties agents with a new way to discuss the value of their property listing. By shying away from metrics such as likes and comments, they can provide video analytics such as view count that actively shows whether a person has viewed the property listing or not. And, with one of the aims of selling homes being to evoke emotion and allow the buyer to form an authentic attachment to the property, video helps form that bond better than a photograph.
“What we found is that people who didn’t like the standard photo of a particular property may have or may be willing to watch a video many times more than they were willing to like or comment on it (a photo). So, this additional analytics just sort of sets the agent up for being able to have a very thoughtful conversation with their seller, about how the property is performing online.”
Lumen5 helped us reduce video creation time from days to just six minutes.
THE RESULTS
Over 1,700 real estate listings with 500 videos
The reason that Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices California Properties chose Lumen5 is down to two simple elements: speed and scale. Lumen5 has the ability to create large quantities of video content — and fast. The California Properties team reduced video creation time down to just six minutes. The team has also created 500 videos in the first 10 months of using Lumen5.
Another key KPI for measuring the success of implementing Lumen5 across BHHS California Properties is the frequency of requests from agents to create videos. Since onboarding Lumen5, the company has seen a steady increase in video requests — a huge signal that video helps agents sell properties.
BHHS California Properties believes that “video should be part of every industry and every strategy.” When it comes down to why video works so well in real estate, Glen thinks that video “has a way of conveying an emotion better than a photo does.” We don’t think you’re wrong there, Glen.
Video has a way of conveying an emotion better than a photo does. It should be part of every industry and every strategy.