Celebrities, viral campaigns—how to brand land and sell it online too

HoABL’s chief marketing officer Saurabh Jain talks about addressing this challenge amid the orthodoxy of real estate marketing. Edited excerpts of an interview:

You sell plots of land and not property, unlike most large real estate brands. What is the biggest marketing challenge in doing so?

We are India’s largest branded land developer, and one of our key tasks is that we develop this category [of investments]. Land is one of the oldest forms of investments. But there are a lot of challenges in land investments. Besides, land is scarce in India. So, despite it being possibly one of the biggest wealth creators in the long run over any other asset, there are only a few people who can ‘dare’ to invest in land and be able to secure it. Our journey has been about making people aware that things have changed now. For example, the Maharashtra government has started online registrations.

Tell me a little bit more about your partnership with Zepto… How did it come about and how did it help your marketing goals?

Traditional advertising can only land this message to a certain extent. But you need people to sit up and take notice. Hence, we came up with the idea of selling land online on Zepto. We have been selling land online on our website for a long time now, but many people doing research on land investments were not aware of this.

We realized it was worth it to leverage a platform where people are engaging online. In this tieup, users could immediately show their interest [on Zepto] and get engaged with one of our online experts and buy land as they please. Within a few days, we saw 6,000-7,000 people actually showing interest, not only in our target market of Delhi but across India, even abroad. People saw “buy land in 10 minutes" and took notice, realized that yes, buying land can be as easy as buying biscuits. People in other locations would put a pin code of Delhi to inquire for land. For now, traditional advertising is less than 30% of our total marketing spends.

How long did the collaboration run? And did you close any transactions?

We ran it for 10 days. And yes, there were transactions. Let’s just say it was more than we had anticipated.

How has your customer base changed? Do you have younger customers now?

At an overall level, we are still in the early stages of this category. There is a huge potential to grow. A lot of people have got convinced already. Typically, the people who buy with us come from business-class families. But there are also middle- and senior-level executives who buy with us. That has been possible because of how we have set up our online buying systems and communicated this. People sitting in Mumbai, Delhi and Bengaluru are actively investing in land in Ayodhya, Alibaug, Goa, Vrindavan. It depends on the project, but in some cases, half or two-thirds of our customers are relatively younger, in their 30s.

There seems to be a shift in the way real estate is marketed, from luxury foreign-looking lifestyles to marketing that is more rooted in Indian traditions. How is it playing out for HoABL’s projects?

India is anything but homogenous. There are people who are looking for a luxurious or even ultra-luxury lifestyle, but there are buyers who are differently inclined. But at the end of the day, no one wants a poorer experience.

Across our developments, whether it is Ayodhya and Vrindavan, or Alibaug and Goa, we want to offer people a great lifestyle. Now, a great lifestyle in Vrindavan would mean that people have the opportunity to have peace of mind, such as a meditation garden. We have developed our project in Vrindavan to bring alive how the city was back in the day. But at the same time, people still want a swimming pool, a gym and a world-class clubhouse.

Real estate advertising also tends to lean heavily on celebrity endorsements. Is that the case for you too? And is this norm slowly changing across the industry?

I think celebrities in any industry can have a role, depending on who your target audience is. For us, Mr (Amitabh) Bachchan has been there for the longest time, but that is because he has been one of our largest investors. It was only natural that he endorses the brand at an overall level. We have also had other celebrities investing and endorsing individual projects such as actors Kartik Aaryan, Triptii Dimri and Kriti Sanon.

Our celebrity philosophy is that we would want them to endorse if they believe and invest with us. But it is not mandatory that we use a celebrity endorsement. So, you look at Nagpur, Vrindavan, One Goa…we are not using any celebrities right now.