The McRae Agency

On-Going Marketing Program Case Study                                               

CB Commercial *

Marketing Program

* Later became CB Richard Ellis

 Summary                  

The McRae Agency was retained by CB Commercial/San Diego Region, to provide public relations/marketing services for the real estate services firm. Public relations and marketing efforts until then had been fractured and sporadic at best and the perception in the marketplace was that their main competitor, who had been receiving more press and was more of a "household name," was the number one firm in the industry.

Since a vital marketing tool in the real estate/brokerage community is publicity, the first thing we did was conduct an intensive and thorough media audit/competitor analysis for CB Commercial.  Publicity was tracked for the two previous years in the key local papers, including San Diego Daily Transcript, San Diego Union-Tribune and San Diego Business Journal. This included feature-length stories, bylined stories, personnel announcements, industry reports/surveys and expert source quotations.  The research found that their main competitor indeed ranked number one in publicity, with CB Commercial a distant second.

Based on the research, we strategized the following goals:

• To increase awareness of CB Commercial among the real estate community, existing clients and prospective clients
• To assist CB Commercial in increasing revenues
• To increase CB Commercial’s position as number one in terms of  publicity
• To increase awareness of other CB Commercial services among key   publics.

Utilizing the original proposal, we mapped out strategies on a monthly basis to work toward achieving our goals.  A few of the key elements included:

• Distributing regular news releases announcing sale transactions
• Distributing regular news releases announcing lease transactions
• Securing major profiles of the executive vice president
• Distributing regular personnel news releases on new hires, promotions and anniversaries
• Placing bylined stories from managers and key brokers on real estate-            related topics

• Distributing industry reports on key real estate areas in local and trade media

• Securing articles on key real estate services/niche areas in local and trade media
• Securing CB Commercial expert source quotations in news stories
• Development of personal relationships between managers and key media contacts
• Recommend specific, strategic community involvement for all managers
• Oversee advertising program in the Daily Transcript and Business  Journal
• Maintain regular public relations meeting and status reports
• Develop San Diego County web site
• Report program results to brokers, including quarterly publicity reports and updates at advisory board and all-employee meetings
• Conduct self-marketing seminar for brokers
• Conduct bi-annual media audit/competitive analysis
• Develop joint commercial real estate guide with CB Commercial and the Business Journal

There were a number of challenges in the implementation process.  It became quickly apparent that the original budget figure was inadequate for what became such an aggressive plan.  In addition, The McRae Agency had to essentially work with over 100 clients.  Although we reported directly to the executive vice president and managers, we had to treat each broker as a separate client with individual objectives.  We literally interfaced with the brokers daily, working to promote their sale and lease transactions.  A self-marketing seminar was created for the brokers to help them increase their business and The McRae Agency constantly updated them on the public relations program’s progress via email, publicity reports and advisory board and all-employee meeting updates.

In addition, The McRae Agency embarked on a special joint project between CB Commercial and the Business Journal that had never been attempted in San Diego before, the Commercial Real Estate Guide.  The McRae Agency and CB Commercial provided all of the editorial, graphs and photography and the Business Journal sold advertising and printed and distributed the four-color special section. 

Results                      

The client was so impressed with the initial results of the program, he tripled the monthly budget.  The client has stated on numerous occasions how overwhelmed he is with the success of the program and how supportive he is of public relations and our agency.

In addition, the preliminary results of the annual media audit/competitive analysis report that CB Commercial has overtaken its main competitor in the media.  In fact, CB Commercial had approximately 20 percent more coverage (all positive).

Most importantly to the client, CB Commercial/San Diego Region witnessed a 20 percent increase in sales over the previous year and consequently ranked highest of all CB Commercial regions in the nation in revenues.

CB Commercial's program received a first place award for ongoing campaign/ business-to-business from the Public Relations Society of America.