Bamboo Realty

Overview

Bamboo Realty was founded in 2010 to serve Millennial renters, an underserved niche in the otherwise crowded real estate brokerage space.

By 2014, Bamboo had offices in four cities, and had racked up a slew of “best place to work” nominations and industry awards for their innovative business model.

But after five years of fast growth, Sarah Jones (the founder) was groaning under the weight of being “Chief Everything Officer.”

Her involvement in every detail of the business was causing operational bottlenecks; relegating A+ players to B- order takers; draining her creativity and leaving her on the brink of burn out.

While everyone was buried in operations and client service, the marketing programs which had been critical to the growth of the business were steadily losing their shine. Turnover started to increase as frontline sales agents looked for new tools and marketing programs to serve their clients, and revenue started to flatline.

Notoriously obsessed with compressing time, Sarah asked the question:

“How can we solve this problem in one day?”

Inspired by the hackathon model popularized by the tech industry, Sarah proposed bringing the team together to cocreate several new marketing campaigns within a 24-hour sprint.

She came up with a list of 12 potential marketing projects that would contribute to:

• Creative collaboration guided by clear goals and processes
• Powerful public first impressions of the brand
• Higher staff engagement and retention
• Unforgettable client experiences
• Revenue growth

From that list of potential projects, Sarah tasked her team with voting for the five projects that they would be most inspired to work on.

During the 24-hour sprint, she led her team though a hyper-compressed process of strategy, planning, creation, and implementation of all five projects.

01

Situational Marketing – Marijuana Legalization in Colorado

Bamboo’s Denver office agents wanted to feel empowered when discussing marijuana reform with clients who were relocating from out of state. Rather than head down the legal discussion path, they opted instead to create a “Guide to Ganja” that offered insight into customs and etiquette in sharing marijuana with guest, friends, and even in the workplace.

Key takeaways:

• Used a “taboo” topic to create brand magnetism
• By bringing in a “subject matter expert” (AKA a former drug dealer), agents gained experience in applying marketplace insights to their creative problem solving efforts

02

Customer Engagement – Neighborhood Marketing Guides

When relocating to a new city, people often asked about the local attractions and activities.

Bamboo’s agents wanted to find a way to provide information in a way that set them apart from other agents, while providing value to their relocating clients.

The team created “Live Like a Local” guides that could be customized to represent a agent’s top recommendations for where to eat, shop, and play in a city. A standard format was developed for use across all offices, but photography and graphics were selected to reflect each market’s unique landscape and character. Rather than static text, the team opted for form fields that could be populated again and again.

The result was a web-hosted guide that could be customized and then printed to showcase an individual agent’s top recommendations.

Key takeaways:

• Created a campaign that was consistent across multiple locations, while catering to the nuances of each branch’s location
• Ensured maximum engagement with and ownership of the campaign by allowing a agents to further customize the campaign to present their own specific knowledge and recommendations

03

Novelty Marketing – All Emoji Website

Bamboo wanted a fresh way to reach Millennials in discussions of rentals and home ownership.

Inspired by the dramatic increase in emoji in everyday electronic communication, the team explored how Bamboo might capitalize on the growing trend in a meaningful way.

The team came up with an all-emoji website that served as a landing page, where users could then navigate for things like a rent versus buy analysis, or explore local neighborhoods.

Key takeaways:

• Irresistible intrigue: The team created a web experience so unusual, people couldn’t help themselves from clicking on the link
• When the website launched the next month on World Emoji Day, Bamboo brought the conversation to the brand, whereas most brands go to the conversation

04

Agent Recruiting – Company Culture Book

Inspired by the Zappos Culture Book, Bamboo wanted to develop an electronic “book” that prominently showcased the agents and the brand culture.

For this project, the target audience was prospective Bamboo clients, but also other agents and industry professionals who might consider Bamboo as their future employer.

Key takeaways:

• Being publicly celebrated as brand ambassadors made agents feel valued, and increased engagement and loyalty
• Employees became the talent attraction engines that propelled the employer brand

05

Corporate Swag Fulfillment – Online Storefront

Bamboo had previously developed branded swag including hats, shirts and notebooks for marketing and client gifts. As both the business and the brand grew, so too did the volume of swag, and a more efficient stock ordering system became necessary.

To eliminate the hassles of holding inventory, the team leveraged the Shopify platform and chose a drop-shipping partner to handle fulfillment of online orders.

At the conclusion of the hackathon, the first order was successfully placed though the new website.

Key takeaways:

• Eliminated the distraction of keeping promotional stock, and made the ordering process more enjoyable and reliable for the agents
• Revealed Hidden Heroes: As an example, the office manager, Jodi, crafted highly creative and humorous order and shipping confirmation emails. Her talent surprised everyone, and she received a standing ovation when the project was presented.