By: Ravi Sinha
1st of the series
When we launched Track2Realty as India’s 1st e newspaper in January 2011, there were many questions before us—Is there a room for another news venture for the sector? Is this the right time to launch when the market is yet to recover? Added to such queries from media’s academic standpoint were reactions from certain B2B realty publications, visible uncomfortable with the presence of another niche media vehicle with a focused approach. After all, it was first 24×7 realty news venture, as against the existing weekend or the month-end publications. Eye brows were also raised on the projected target audience who were not just the realtors but also investors and the end users.
However, the team at Track2Realty was determined not just with a strong conviction but also backed by the research that suggested there is a discerning audience beyond the realty companies, not willing to wait for the weekend to know what is happening in the sector. The conventional media by and large has been missing the bigger picture, thus realty never getting its due. While there has been a bias against the sector with mainline publications hardly giving space to the realty news; the marketing supplements & B2B publications never catering to the end-users.
Real estate sector needed a 24×7 news platform of its own. It was not a case of “me too”, but “why not till date”? It is all the more surprising that a negative bias continues to happen with the sector which, from standpoint of economic wisdom is now country’s second largest economic activity and largest employment generator. From media marketing standpoint too, the growth of the advertising spend of real estate has been faster than even FMCG sector.
However, the sector by and large has been a victim of its own growth trajectory where some fly-by-night operators grabbed more eye balls than many genuine success stories. Recently at a seminar in Hyderabad the realtors were found cribbing against the arm twisting by some of the leading publications. However, they had no clear answer to why such arm twisting is not seen with other cash rich sectors, with even more advertising budget to spend, say for instance the FMCG sector.
And it is here that the real estate sector needs some serious brainstorming as to what kind of media policy they have adopted thus far and where has it led to the sector. To what extent has the overt media exposure for the sector with print & television ads, billboards, exhibitions and every other possible door knocking led to the upward sell graph? Most importantly, has it helped the sector or the respective realty companies in establishing respectability & enhancing the brand recall value as well?
