Building Site Cameras:
More than a Gimmick

In real estate market­ing today, there are excit­ing means of adver­tis­ing avail­able that other indus­tries can only dream of. It is all the more aston­ish­ing that they are often used by chance or not at all. Our latest Valdivia Expert Tip on real estate market­ing revolves around a little star among these adver­tis­ing tools: the construc­tion site camera. We all know them. Who has not taken a peek at the construc­tion of Burj Khal­i­fa or simi­lar projects? And yet, the oppor­tu­ni­ties these cameras provide are wide­ly underestimated.

Moving Images: the Social Media Ace up Your Sleeve

With the success of social media as well as grow­ing band­widths on the inter­net, the poten­tials and the adver­tis­ing impact of construc­tion site cameras have changed dras­ti­cal­ly. For one thing is for sure: images, espe­cial­ly videos, are in fact the most popu­lar content. This is express­ly true of to B2B commu­ni­ca­tion as well. While every­one is talk­ing about content market­ing but , at the same time, is unsure where to get content from, a construc­tion site deliv­ers living raw mate­r­i­al free of charge.

Gimmick? Users Will Be People, Even in B2B

Construc­tion site cameras can do a lot. First, of course, they show the progress of ongo­ing projects. Howev­er, gone are the days when you had to rely on a tiny still image that was only refreshed at certain inter­vals. Today, tech­nol­o­gy and network costs easi­ly allow for high-reso­lu­tion, full-screen images or even video. At the same time, addi­tion­al func­tions can be incor­po­rat­ed, for exam­ple a time-lapse, the 360° view or up-to-date temper­a­ture and other weath­er data. The latter comes with an addi­tion­al bene­fit: The construc­tion site camera turns into a weath­er cam, which means it can be linked and adver­tised accordingly.

Success Need Planning

In order for the camera to be a success­ful adver­tis­ing tool, howev­er, it takes more than just film­ing the work and feed­ing it to YouTube or Periscope. It all starts with a script. This will deter­mine, for instance, when and how often a short state­ment by the archi­tect or site manag­er is cut into the broad­cast. Secu­ri­ty aspects would also need to be consid­ered so as to avoid that the wrong people spy on what is happen­ing on the construc­tion site and use this for their own bene­fit. Anoth­er useful feature is a data­base that can be searched by keyword. This can be used to illus­trate and docu­ment certain essen­tial work steps for clients of future projects. Add to this well thought-out seed­ing – i.e. refer­ences and links in social media – and the construc­tion site camera becomes a keystone in modern real estate marketing.