You may not have heard of RODE Advertising unless you are involved in building or marketing luxury real estate. However, if you have seen advertising for The Chrysler Building, Liberty Luxe and Liberty Green in Battery Park City, The Sheffield on 57th or Platinum NYC, you’ve seen their work.
Referred to as the real estate industry’s “Mad Men,” Ron Nelson and Debbi Melman sat down with me to talk about how the luxury real estate market has evolved in the more than quarter century they have in their rear view mirror, as well as what’s next.
Elite Traveler: How did you meet?
Ron Nelson: Debbi and I first met in the 1980s in an ad agency called Equity Advertising. I was working on real estate, and Debbi had a real estate background. I needed help. We were in the same company, but didn’t know each other. They paired us up, and we started marketing luxury real estate together.
ET: So you’ve been together ever since?
RN: No. The recession of 1991 hit, the agency had a lot of debt. A headhunter called me and I referred them to Debbi who went to work with another agency to market The World Trade Center.
Debbi Melman: After a few more years in real estate advertising and a short stint at Quest Magazine, I was recruited by The New York Times to manage Real Estate as well as Home Furnishings and other categories. Ron and I remained friends and we wanted to work together again.
RN: I recruited her away from The New York Times. And we have remained focused on high-end luxury real estate, whether it’s here or Washington DC, Miami, Atlanta, Canada, all along the East Coast.
ET: And what’s the profile of your clients?
RN: We specialize in the high end of the real estate market. Residential is 80 percent of our business, but we do commercial as well. We rebranded the Chrysler Building. There have been very few ‘ground up’ commercial buildings built in the past 10 years. We did 11 Times Square for SJP and two projects for Vornado in Washington D.C. While these were commercial projects, we were hired to market all three because of our pre-branding expertise.
ET: What does it take to successfully market very expensive residential projects?
RN: When you are selling luxury condominiums, you are selling a dream. You are selling before the building is built. It’s about, how do you sell the dream before seeing it? How to create the visuals? How do you create the sales environment? How do you create the brand? It’s selling before you have anything to show. People put down million dollar deposits (based on what we do).
ET: And how has it changed over the past 20 years?
DM: It’s changing as we speak. Back in the day we would do water color renderings, and in some ways that was easier to sell a dream. We went from watercolor to virtual reality that looks like photographs. Instead of somebody looking at a rendering and saying, ‘I get it,’ now they zoom in, and say, ‘I don’t like the faucet on the vanity.’
ET: What’s the solution?
DM: For a new condo project in Manhattan, we used an illustrator from London, who has worked with Tom Ford and Chanel. We will marry illustrations with renderings and high tech. We’re using color blocking techniques which is very fashion oriented and something different. Nobody is doing it in New York (real estate) at the moment.
ET: Has there been a change in where customers are coming from at the high end?
RN: That’s the big change. It used to be you advertised in New York, and (every transaction) was a move up. Real estate used to be a building block of wealth. Every few years, (local) people would flip it, move up and put the money into something bigger. That doesn’t happen much anymore. The overseas market coming into New York has completely changed it.
ET: Is this limited to the city?
RN: No. I have a project in Princeton, New Jersey that’s priced well over $1 million per unit. We are highly targeting China. Their kids may be going to Princeton, but there also are a number of top private schools, and they come in and want to buy real estate. We bid on specific key words online to target people in China looking for real estate in Princeton. We will translate materials into Mandarin. We also follow currency markets when there is strong currency (against the dollar) to target certain (foreign) areas.
ET: So is it all about online targeting?
RN: Not at all. After the recession, that was the trend, but it’s swinging back. The overall brand message is critical. If you are doing just online ads, you are just another listing. For high-end real estate, brand advertising is critical. I always liken it to car ads. You have local auto dealers shouting, ‘hurry in,’ and at the same time Detroit is running ads on The Super Bowl showing trucks climbing piles of rocks to sell the dream. You can’t just run online ads. High end magazines that reach the right target are key.
ET: What changes are you seeing with the product?
RN: Let me use the rental market as an example. In the past (builders) delivered a box with decent appliances. Right now, we have a rental building on the Upper West Side, The Larstrand (below), that has 15-inch TV monitors in the bathroom mirrors and radiant heat flooring in the bathrooms. In the kitchen, when you open any drawer a light goes on in the back. (In the past these amenities) weren’t in a lot of condos. Now it’s happening in rentals. Today it doesn’t make sense to build a project, rental or condo, unless you can get top dollar, so people are continually looking for ways to enhance the experience.
DM: People at the high end can afford anything they want. They want it well located and secure, but they want their life easy. It’s all about lifestyle. It’s not uncommon to see fancy spas, hair blow dry facilities and services such as pet walking. It’s no longer, just wine cellars but other perks like cold storage for Fresh Direct deliveries. Big homes with 2 to 5 bedrooms are popular and the space is designed with a bedroom next to the living room to create the flexibility of eliminating a bedroom to create a larger entertaining space. Outdoor space is another hot commodity.
ET: What’s driving amenity mania?
RN: The apartments are smaller in square footage, and the price per square foot is higher. Today’s apartments aren’t as big as the pre war. If you are shrinking the apartment space, you’re providing increased amenity space – lounges, fitness centers, business centers, golf simulator rooms. It’s an extension of your home. It’s about big event space, outdoor space and every amenity you can think of. We have a client who is offering special parking spaces equipped for electric cars. We were in Toronto helping a client, and the apartments there are smaller than New York. The market is on fire, and it’s smaller apartments and grander amenity packages.
ET: Any other trends?
DM: Amazing penthouses. The Witkoff Group is an example. At 515 East 72 and No. 10 Madison Square West (below) they have created spectacular penthouse residences. They go for tens of millions of dollars, have amazing outdoor space, and there is a separate, special marketing effort just for the penthouses.
ET: Has the customer target for high-end rentals changed as well?
RN: Rental (customers) are global too. A lot of people who used to rent in luxury buildings in New York are priced out and moving out, so it’s people coming from overseas. It’s the top of the top.
ET: And is the trend for luxury services limited to Manhattan?
DM: In Bronxville, not Manhattan, we have a project that is a conversion of The Metropolitan Life Hall of Records Building. It’s beautiful architecture. The developer is gutting the entire inside and spending a fortune building out duplexes and loft style apartments. It has full concierge services and a full spa with massages, manicures, pedicures, everything you would want!
ET: What about branding trends?
DM: There was an entire trend of starchitects. There is a cachet of associating, for example, New York by Gehry. Everyone from St. Regis to W to Four Seasons to Mandarin Oriental are getting on the bandwagon because real estate developers are partnering with these brands to elevate their own brand. You have a hotel on the lower floors, then condos on the top floors with the best views. When you own a condo you get access to all the hotel services and you get the cachet of the hotel service lifestyle. Interior designers are also getting into the market. Benjamin Noriega-Ortiz has expanded to boutique hotels and condominiums such as 35XV (His work includes homes for Lenny Kravitz and Sean Combs, hotels in Los Angeles, Scottsdale and SoHo for Mondrian and a concept boutique for Cartier.).
ET: What sets RODE apart?
DM: We probably have 50 accounts. We have “Trend Forward” on our business cards and as part of our branding. We think about what’s next. What’s the next hot amenity or service. We have to think two years out, before there’s even a shovel in the ground. We look at what the architect envisions, do our research on the competitive marketplace and determine a creative strategy that is “Trend Forward”.
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