Strategy - The Ticking Clock

The challenge was marketing a small, untidy one-bedroom suburban apartment in an ugly block. The only redeeming feature was the close proximity to a railway station popular with commuters.

For advertising, we used an image of an old steam locomotive rather than an image of the property. The headline read, Ideal for Commuting. We were inundated with inquiries and soon found a buyer. We didn’t sell the apartment; we sold the location.

We reached the group most interested in the property by engagingly highlighting one attractive benefit. The legendary ad man, David Ogilvy, wrote the most famous motor car ad: “At 60 miles an hour, the loudest noise in the new Rolls-Royce comes from the electric clock”. Ogilvy knew that the ad would attract wealthy buyers who demanded silent motoring through superlative auto-engineering, and he used the clock to make the unique point - just as we had used the steam locomotive to attract commuters.

It takes bold marketing to stray from the norm, but when executed well, it can produce spectacular results.