In what the company is calling a bold effort to cut the cord that tethers real estate agents to their desktops, Royal LePage Real Estate Services has announced it will launch what it says is the real estate industry’s first fully mobilized, bilingual marketing center, titled the “Royal LePage Marketing Centre.”
Canadian real estate agents for the first time will be able to create and distribute all their English, French and bilingual online and print homebuyer and seller marketing programs on iPads and Android tablets. Royal LePage, one of Canada’s leading real estate companies, made the announcement this week in San Francisco at a meeting of The Realty Alliance, a network of real estate firms that serves nearly every major market in the continent.
“This breakthrough technology will further free Royal LePage real estate agents from the ties that bind so many real estate agents to an office desk,” said Phil Soper, president and chief executive, Royal LePage. “Clients in today’s marketplace expect information in real-time. We’re thrilled to be able to provide our people with these innovative, mobile-enabled tools, which will enable them up to devote valuable found hours in the field to working directly for homebuyers and sellers.”
Canadians have been quick to shift to mobile and 80 percent believe that this year mobile devices will surpass desktop computers as the primary tool used to access the web.
With this new technology, a Royal LePage agent will be able to sit at the kitchen table with a couple looking to sell a home, pull out his or her iPad, and create a website for the property, a feature sheet, even an online slideshow that can be posted to Facebook and Twitter. Agents will have the ability to develop all types of marketing materials right in front of the seller.
“It creates a ‘wow’ factor that will help our agents win the battle for a client’s listing and loyalty,” said Soper. “This unique toolset gives Royal LePage professionals agents a clear marketing advantage over their competitors.”
The new Royal LePage Marketing Centre features a bilingual user interface, as well as both English and French language promotional material. It centralizes all of an agent’s social, mobile, online and traditional print marketing in one place.
The marketing center also features hundreds of design options for more than a dozen buyer, seller and agent promotional marketing products, including slideshows, web commercials, feature sheets, eCards, eNewsletters, as well as designs to create printed postcards, brochures, property cards and more. Agents can distribute their marketing projects directly to their social media and other channels including Facebook and Twitter, as well as post to any website.
Created by real estate technologies firm Imprev, the marketing center was introduced in 2005 as the first of its kind in Canada and adds to Royal LePage’s history of inventive technology. In 1995 the company launched Canada’s first real estate web site, and in 2000 it offered the first property search and neighborhood information through interactive mapping technology. Yesterday, it was the first website in Canada to give consumers the opportunity to search for properties near their favorite local landmarks such as the famed CN Tower in Toronto or the Olympic Stadium in Montreal.
The new mobilized version will work on iPads and Android tablets and is scheduled for release to Royal LePage agents this summer.
Renwick Congdon, CEO of Imprev, the company that created the technology, notes that the new Royal LePage Marketing Centre “is always on, always available” to the company’s network of over 14,500 real estate professionals in over 600 locations nationwide. “There is nothing to download, install or update – everything an agent needs is online, all the time.”
According to the company, last year Imprev became the only real estate marketing technologies firm to eclipse the coveted “5-nines” – 99.999% reliability – achieving a remarkable 100% stability, with no unplanned outages during 2012.
“Imprev is the only firm that has the necessary breadth of marketing tools and the sound technological capabilities to deliver the level of service and performance our agents have come to expect,” noted Carolyn Cheng, senior vice president, strategic business services, Royal LePage.
Imprev is headquartered in Bellevue, Washington and online at www.imprev.com.
