Sotheby?s International Realty is running rich-media ads within the New York Times iPad application to push its property listings.

The ads focus on the most desirable attributes of specific properties and so there are several different creative units running throughout the application. One ad is for Manzanillo, Mexico, and it is described as majestic, while another ad is for Kailua-Kona, Hawaii and is referred to as tranquil.

?The campaign came as a result of us experimenting with the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal and other publishers,? said Wendy Purvey, chief marketing officer of Sotheby?s International Realty, Parsippany, NJ. ?We figured out that our click-throughs were highest when the ads showed our listings.

?So for this campaign we are using listings that have desirable attributes to get people to click on the ad,? she said.  ?We find that when our ads focus on our properties the click-through rates are three-to-four-time higher.

?Because of the way you can scroll the iPad we knew it was perfect for our brand.?

Rich media
What?s interesting about the ad creative is that there are pictures of the property with one-word descriptions. For example, there may be a waterside property listing depicted with the word harmonious describing it.

Rich banners enable users to tap or swipe through photos of the six properties directly within the ad.

The landing page looks very similar to the interstitial ad. Consumers are shown images of six properties, but when they tap on any of them, they are brought to a page where they see small boxes within the image of the property. 

Consumers can tap on each little box to learn about some of the finer details of each property. 

Also, at the top of each individual property page, there is a drop down menu featuring text that describes each property and link to contact Sotheby?s International Reality.

The campaign launched Feb. 1 and Medialets created the ads for Sotheby?s International Realty.
Here is a video of the user experience once the banner advertisement is clicked on. 

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The rich interstitial takes full advantage of the iPad?s size by displaying vibrant, full-screen photos of each property that users can tap or swipe through. Each creative unit allows users to view further details at SothebysRealty.com.

New York Times audience
Ms. Purvey said that the New York Times? audience was the perfect target demographic for the Sotheby?s International Realty campaign, even though at first, the name of the paper was a throw off.

Sotheby?s was concerned about whether the New York Times would have the global reach it needed.

Then, after doing its research, the real estate giant found out that the New York Times has a targeted 29 million users to its Web site. A whopping 13 million of them are coming from outside of the U.S.

Also, there are 9 million U.S. visitors, who are not based in New York.

?People can look at their phones the same way they use their computers and that is why we chose to showcase our listings through the iPad,? Ms. Purvey said.  ?But, we go beyond the iPad.

?We are also a sponsor of the New York Times Real Estate iPhone application,? she said. ?You are going to see a lot of real estate companies doing what they can to reach mobile users.?