Revealed - the thinking behind Zoopla's new look, features and functionality

As the property market continues to boom, competition between portals such as Zoopla, Rightmove, OnTheMarket and Boomin has been hotting up this spring.

Earlier this week, Zoopla revealed a new multi-million-pound marketing campaign which seeks to capitalise on the busy housing market, driving more traffic and subsequently creating more valuable leads for its agents.

It has also launched My Home, a destination for homeowners to provide them with the tools, information, insights and market knowledge they need to sell their home.

The marketing campaign emphasises that My Home has the power to change the hearts of even the most attached homeowners to become sellers.

Alongside the new campaign, Zoopla announced a new brand, logo and improvements to its website, including its most visited pages such as its home page and individual property detail pages.

With so much change taking place at the portal, Estate Agent Today caught up with Zoopla's chief marketing officer Gary Bramall to gain a better understanding of the marketing campaign, My Home and what all this means for agents...

It’s a busy time at Zoopla, with the launch of a new brand, revamping your user experience with the launch of My Home, as well as your biggest-ever marketing campaign. Why did you decide now was the time for such a flurry of activity?

As a nation, homes have never been more important. Over the last year, they have been schools and hospitals, providing safety and isolation for people when they need it.

Zoopla's heritage on knowing what homes are worth to people has married with a desire to drive more value to our agents. Therefore, it's the perfect time to reintroduce and reimagine our offering, with the aim of stimulating activity in the market.

How does this build on ‘the Vision’ you announced back in January?

We're looking to transform the industry and create exponential value for agents. This is happening against a backdrop of radical changes to the way people look, find and manage their homes.

The launch of My Home and our biggest-ever marketing campaign is another stepping stone in making this Vision real for homeowners and agents. It was important for us to launch with something people can use today and not something that is 'coming soon'.

We know that it has never been more important for people to understand the value of their property in order so they are informed and make their next move, in turn benefitting agents. We hope these steps to realise our Vision can help them to achieve this.

Tell us more about your marketing campaign. How will it benefit your agent customers?

Very few people consistently know the value of their homes and it's something that is impacted by a range of different factors.

So, what we are aiming to do with the new marketing campaign is challenge the status quo and disrupt the consumer mindset, encouraging people to think about whether now - post-pandemic - is the time to move home.

Over the next few months, many people will be revisiting whether to sell their property post-Covid. We estimate around 42% of UK households are thinking of selling their home - this provides a huge opportunity to stimulate high-value transactions for our agents.

My Home is at the core of your new marketing campaign. Tell us more about this and what it might mean for agents?

The thinking behind My Home is revealed within the new campaign. It challenges the inertia many people have around their home and whether people are happy with what they've got.

By helping consumers to understand what's going on in the market and providing them with insight and information My Home allows them to understand the true value of their home and then provides them with the opportunity to connect with agents who are experts in the local market.

It's very much a 'rug pull' moment. When devising the strategy, we used the Antiques Roadshow mechanic of 'Oh, it's worth that much? How can I sell this?'. We look forward to seeing how homeowners respond.

Is there any risk that My Home might remove the need for agents?

We know that the experience we offer can help make consumers feel more informed. However, we pride ourselves on the great agents we work with and My Home is an estimate.

My Home intends to encourage home movers to take the opportunity they have and consider how they are going to sell their home.

We have no desire, no plans and no interest in removing the need for agents or going direct to consumers. We have always seen ourselves as a conduit between agents and consumers and will continue to do so.

What’s your rationale for targeting high-intent homeowners for this campaign?

Traditionally, Zoopla has been a brand much loved by millennials, a solution for the urban, younger generation and we have been biased to that segment.

By inviting consumers from across the country to see the value of their home through My Home, we can question and challenge the 42% of households who could be in the market soon.

We're targeting all demographics, from second and third-steppers, all the way to downsizers. It's a big opportunity to get the market moving and drive value for our agents.

There’s lots of choice out there for agents with the three established portals plus challengers. Why should agents choose Zoopla?

I joined Zoopla two and a half years ago and it's been a very exciting time to be here. Zoopla is a household name, it has 94% brand awareness and passes my 92-year-old Grandma test - she knows who we are!

This level of recognition is something which is important when agents want to speak to consumers.

We've been on this journey of transformation, building out a world-class service and products. We have a new Vision and My Home is a great example of the latest thinking to come from Zoopla.

We believe we are one of the most agent-centred portals. For example, the free contracts we gave our partners when the pandemic hit last year represented a £30 million investment in our customers and were some of the most generous in the Northern Hemisphere.

Everything we are doing means Zoopla is the best place for agents to be in the portal space.

What’s next for Zoopla?

We are passionate about using technology and we have a huge opportunity to connect the 'Zoopla-verse' through our portals, software and data products.

Zoopla is underpinned by the largest marketing budget out of any of the portals and we are tirelessly working to implement our Vision.

We also have one of the most progressive and innovative product teams, which means it is a super-exciting time for agents to be with Zoopla.