A new app has been launched offering agents an innovative and customisable way to market properties using a form of technology known as augmented reality.
The Virtual View App provides agents with a unique differentiator against competitors while also providing a new medium for engaging with prospective buyers and tenants, allowing them to access digital marketing material from their homes.
The Virtual View App is available on smart-phones and tablets and gives users access to digital content such as 3D property models, 3D floor-plans, photo galleries and videos, simply by scanning an image.
It can also generate interactive buttons that direct users to the agency's social media channels, website, or any other relevant digital content.
Several agency groups are currently using Virtual View App including Fine & Country, Campsie, Orchard & Shipman, Newman, Jackson Stops and Harrods. The app has also already attracted international interest, and is currently being trialled by a number of overseas agents.
Its founders describe its key benefits as:
- enabling traceable marketing, meaning agents can easily track results of a campaign, discovering where and when their marketing material has been scanned. Agencies will then be able to use these insights to increase the success of future marketing campaigns
- using advanced 3D modelling to easily replicate the inside and outside of virtually any property. The process is entirely scalable and takes a matter of days to complete;
- making 3D models are also much more effective than the traditional artist's impression and significantly more cost-effective than commissioning conventional CGI models. They help buyers visualise how finished properties might look and give investors a better idea of how commercial spaces could be best configured.
The reaction of our agents when we introduced this new technology has been amazing says Mike Bidwell, executive director of Fine & Country. Lizzie Leigh of Jackson-Stops & Staff says: We've decided to trial the Virtual View app on pages throughout the next issue of our dedicated London property magazine.
Virtual View App will enable agents to win more instructions. After working as an estate agent for over 20 years, I felt there was a gap in the market for a technological tool that helped bring together digital and printed marketing materials explains Dominic Versace, one of Virtual View's founders.
The marketing approach taken by estate agents is often very traditional, especially when it comes to print. Virtual View App brings printed property adverts to life and can really assist with the selling and letting of properties he says.
Comments