Move Offers Targeted Way for Real Estate Advertisers to Reach Consumers

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Home & Garden site enhancements optimize advertiser opportunities to Move’s 9.85 million monthly online visitors

By Beth McGuire

RISMEDIA, May 12, 2008–Advertisers in the real estate space looking for a new way to reach consumers now have a better, more targeted approach to doing so with comprehensive video and editorial content enhancements recently announced on Move.com’s Home & Garden channel.

Move has a network of over 9.85 million monthly visitors to its online network of websites, according to comScore Media Metrix (March 2008) – that’s good news for advertisers in the space. But even better, says Move’s Vice President of Consumer Media, Patty Mitchell, is the site’s increased print ‘how-to’ articles and instructional video content from such partners as This Old House®, The Victory Garden®, BeJane®, Hometime®, and Point-Click-Home® (Metropolitan Home®, Elle Décor®).

In addition to adding a fresh and steady stream of brand name video content, Move’s Home & Garden Content Channel has been revamped to offer a new look and feel, more than double the content, cutting-edge tools, and relevant links designed to help home enthusiasts at all stages of the home spending cycle turn inspiration into action.

p_mitchell-work-headshots.jpg“We’ve always had a robust library centered around home improvement, and now we’ve doubled the content and added video from the industry’s most trusted sources and aggregating everything in one place,” said Mitchell. “We have a broad section of do-it-yourself content from our vendors and partners that covers the gamut from new homes to remodeling. It’s a very comprehensive library.”

Move has always been consumer focused, having one of the industry’s most comprehensive, largest number of listings and its consumer offering of home-related information on buying, selling and Realtor connections, Mitchell said. “It’s always been why we are the leader,” she says, “but consumers are demanding more now. They are voracious information seekers and want web tools and information right at their fingertips.”

“The Home & Garden Content Channel has now become an even more compelling opportunity for advertisers to increase brand awareness and drive sales through access to Move’s exclusive network of real estate web sites, the largest audience of consumers searching for real estate and home-related content on the web,” said Mitchell, senior vice president of consumer media at Move, Inc. “Our Home & Garden Content Channel advertisers will live in an elite marketplace featuring deep, value-added information and do-it-yourself advice from well known brand names consumers trust.”

With Move’s expansion of its video content, Home & Garden Content Channel advertisers can now purchase 15-second pre-roll video placements and companion half-page ads that appear adjacent to video content from the site’s rapidly growing list of leading home and garden brands. SEO best practices were also recently enhanced to optimize search engine placements. In addition, new performance metrics now continually monitor the site so lessons learned can be built into updates and message optimization. Sites within the Move network continue to offer leaderboard (top/bottom), half-page, medium rectangle and transitional ad positions that can be targeted by internet protocol (IP), zip code, visitor behavior or day parted.

Mitchell noted that Move’s goal was to create the best user experience and balance that with the amount ad time needed to create the best marketing opportunity for advertisers’ messages.

“We are sensitive to the ad experience when people watch our videos,” Mitchell said. “When people want to watch a video about how to tile a bathroom, they don’t want to sit through a 30-second commercial, but we do want the content to be able to provide a good bed for the marketing messages.”

She added that users welcome the ads placed on how-to videos because the information is relevant to why they are there to begin with.

A recent study by BIGresearch found that adults planning to purchase a home in six months are almost twice as likely (10.8% vs. 5.7%) to be influenced by paid/sponsored links.

“Research tells us that Move’s audience is more likely to be receptive to relevant advertising and promotions, making it one of the best Internet advertising values available for consumer-driven marketers,” said Mitchell.

Move is well positioned to capture a significant share of new revenue as advertisers continue to shift their spending toward the Internet. Advertising dollars have been shifting steadily online, away from traditional media from 2004 through 2007, with newspapers and broadcast TV losing $890 and $720 million per year, respectively, according to reports. Analysts predict that U.S. online advertising spend will continue to grow through 2008, rising by 23%.

“By increasing the overall caliber and quality of our content and the engaging features of our sites, we fully expect to enhance both the consumer and advertiser experience,” said Mitchell. “We’re confident Move’s Home & Garden Content Channel will continue to grow in consumer popularity as a home and lifestyle destination as our fresh and appealing content becomes even richer.”

It’s working for the advertisers too.

“The response to ad sales has been tremendous,” Mitchell adds. “We’re close to getting sold out. People are really happy with the video performance. Page views are increasing. The content is fresh. It’s really been a positive for us.”

For more information: www.move.com.

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