Jameson Sotheby's

Challenge

Jameson Sotheby's is Chicago's premier real estate and luxury home agency. However, given the Chicago market is a highly competitive environment, Sotheby's needed to boldly redeclare its position. Elegance, luxury and dominance in the category were the message. Torque was brought on to define the campaign, the image of the campaign, the message and the marketing tools. The goal - to recruit new agents, excite the 400 existing agents, build awareness among luxury home buyers and re-establish Sotheby's as THE source for exceptional homes in Chicago.

Solution

Torque’s approach built on the company's brand reputation and their agent-centered culture. We refreshed the agency’s promise with a positioning line: “Expect the Exceptional.” Working with leadership, we helped re-engage the agents on how to use and reflect the brand. We redefined the marketing tools making them exciting and easy to use. The ad campaign extended through print, direct mail, email and digital media. Torque set up QUEsocial, an internal social media management platform, to activate agents as ambassadors of the brand and to educate them on social media through use of their individual networks. This made the outreach credible and personal. In four months, almost 25% of agents adopted the program, a big increase over adoption in the past. Individually agents are seeing sales performance results; Jameson Sotheby’s is making more marketing investments and continues to evolve the business. In a follow up campaign, Torque developed a high fashion, elegant and direct approach to a highly visual marketing campaign. The imagery and language were all about luxury real estate done on a grander scale. This striking use of imagery and monumental typography became the signature of the agency's presence.