New portal OnTheMarket says that it has recorded one million unique visits.
In a statement to agents which have joined OTM, chief executive Ian Springett also says that a year ago some 1,820 offices were initial gold' members but that there are now 4,700 members - some 400 of them joined during January and some are still to be added to OnTheMarket.com pending the run-off of contracts with portals they are dropping.
Springett says more than 4,300 of the total 4,700 are contracted for five years as gold and silver members, providing an immensely strong anchor tenant' group for your portal. He says the balance is recently-recruited bronze members who commit, initially, for one year.
The OTM advertising campaign is centred on TV spots in a range of 10 second, 30 second and 40 second durations. These are being over over 3,000 times during February.
To ensure we reach those who watch little/less TV, we are also advertising heavily in national quality press titles and property-focused magazines. Archant is running extensive (free of charge) advertising for us across all its newspaper and magazine titles until at least the end of April he says.
The letter to member agents is combative about the slew of pre-launch publicity in newspapers, financial analyses and industry comment which was broadly critical of the new portal.
The PR battle in the run up to launch was difficult as it was possible for our rivals (especially commentators and/or media associated with Zoopla) to make unsubstantiated assertions about your Company (eg it would fail to attract agents/funding; it was anti-competitive; it would not be a credible portal; it would not launch on time) writes Springett.
Since the launch of OnTheMarket.com, it has been possible for us to engage more fully and many journalists have a greater appreciation of what is at stake and the scale and strength of our market entry. Our voice is being heard and this is very well illustrated in the coverage arising from last Thursday's trading statement by Zoopla Property Group he says.
He reiterates that it is his aim for OTM to become the second portal' by next January, adding that an equal objective is to become a credible alternative to the No 1 portal.
Springett's note concludes with five suggestions to member agents - to advocate OTM to non-members, help his sales team locally, increase co-branding and local promotion,
maintain and help us maintain strict adherence to one other portal' and implementing the earlybird' listing for new properties.
Comments
Your having a laugh. Only seen the adverts twice this month. With only a quarter of the agents how can it ever be 7-8-9th place, let alone 1st or 2nd.
He's got more chance of being the next Pope than making OTM work