Caught up in the festivi-

ties and good will of the

holiday season, it’s easy

to make big promises about

the year ahead. However, by the

time January 2 rolls around, our

convictions and commitments for

a new and improved year often start waning. Why?

Because more often than not, the lofty goals we set

for ourselves in the heat of the moment can often

seem crushing once the fast pace of the January

grind sets in. Better to cut our losses and start

muddling through as usual…right?

Wrong. While the goals you mapped out for 2014 may

now seem larger than life, there are small steps you can

take immediately that won’t overwhelm you, but that will

put you on the path to more business. Our January is-

sue is flled with doable ideas for shaking things up this

year. Some highlights:

8On page 16, REBAC’s Marc Gould discusses the

importance of giving buyers what they really need in the

new year, from effective online marketing strategies to

knowledgeable real estate guidance. Make sure you’re

in sync with what matters most to your clients in 2014.

8On page 26, fnd out how to map out a game-plan

for working with millennials this year. Better Homes and

Gardens Real Estate President & CEO Sherry Chris calls

them “generation next” and has specifc—and painless—

suggestions for modifying your business strategies to

make sure you’re reaching these up-and-coming buyers.

8On page 35, RE/MAX CEO Margaret Kelly shares the

key client groups that will be largely responsible for

increasing your transactions in 2014. Targeting these

groups can make the difference between a fat year and

an improved year.

8If you’re looking for inspiration from industry icons to

get you pumped for the year, don’t miss our interviews

with real estate legend, Barbara Corcoran (page 28),

and CENTURY 21’s Rick Davidson and Bev Thorne

(page 72), who detail the frm’s forward-focused

approach to marketing, branding and technology.

Remember, changes in the new year don’t have to be

big to be valuable. Simple adjustments to strategies

and mindsets can be all it takes to reach new levels of

success. Here’s to a great 2014!

John E. Featherston

CEO & Publisher

Small Steps to Big Goals

www.rismedia.com@RISMediaUpdatesfacebook.com/rismedia

8Are Agent Ratings Driving Business? Page 57

Sustained Competitive

Excellence:CENTURY 21 & USA Bobsled Go for Gold

Jan14_RIS_Digi_Mag.indd 996 12/18/13 9:52 AM

{highlights}

30 Upping the Game Realty ONE Group looks back on

a year of extraordinary success, plans for a bigger and better 2014

36 People Who Need People: Customer Service Insights

47 New Year, New You? Women Professionals Share How to Turn Change into Opportunity

57 Trending Like ’Em or Not, Online Agent Ratings Drive Business

in this issue

Archives

January 2014 $6.95

Sustained Competitive

ence: Bobsled Go for Gold

Jan14_RIS_Digi_Mag.indd 997 12/18/13 9:53 AM

January 2014 $6.95

www.rismedia.com@RISMediaUpdatesfacebook.com/rismedia

8Are Agent Ratings Driving Business? Page 57

Sustained Competitive

Excellence: CENTURY 21 & USA Bobsled Go for Gold

Jan14_4_Covers.indd 991 12/13/13 10:45 AM

The U.S. Bobsled and Skeleton Federation team with Century 21

Real Estate LLC President & CEO Rick Davidson

Sustained Competitive

Excellence: CENTURY 21 & USA Bobsled Go for Gold

72 January 2014 RISMedia’s REAL ESTATE

by Maria Patterson

Jan14_72-77.indd 72 12/13/13 1:02 PM

RISMedia’s REAL ESTATE January 2014 73

Maria Patterson: Let’s look at

where you’ve been over the years…

and let’s start at the beginning. When

did this push for “gold” begin?

Rick Davidson: As you may know,

“Gold” has been a part of our heri-

tage since the business began

in 1971. In the industry, and with

consumers worldwide, it stands for

professionalism, dependability, and

exemplary customer service. It rep-

resents “The Gold Standard.” This

global recognition and strong asso-

ciation with gold is unmistakable,

especially matched with the locally

established reputations of entrepre-

neurs around the world. We have the

legacy and the foundation from our

very inception, but we have acceler-

ated our fervor for gold standard per-

formance since early 2010. That’s

when I put the stake in the ground

to become the global leader in real

estate transactions. Our System’s

commitment and laser-like focus on

the customers we serve every day

means that, together, we are all go-

ing for the gold! And it’s clear that

the industry has taken notice. At the

National Association of REALTORS®

Conference & Expo in San Francisco,

for example, brokers and agents

came to our heavily-traffcked exhibit

booth (where we had our branded

Indy car and USA Bobsled). The

feedback that we got there and at

our third annual “tailgate” party was

outstanding.

MP: Bev, from your perspective,

when did the push for “gold” begin?

Bev Thorne: There was a marked

shift that began with the celebration

of our 40th anniversary in 2011. At

that time, we unveiled our “SMART-

ER. BOLDER. FASTER.®” campaign.

The campaign was unique to us

and to the industry at large, and re-

mains so today. The strength of the

“SMARTER. BOLDER. FASTER.” cam-

paign is in its drive to showcase the

capabilities of our sales profession-

als in front of the largest audiences,

in association with momentous and

iconic events, such as the Super

Bowl, the Summer Olympics, U.S.

Soccer, and the Indianapolis 500.

Most recently, we became the offcial

real estate company of the USBSF

team and we will be advertising dur-

ing the upcoming Winter Olympics

in Sochi, Russia in February. The

CENTURY 21-sponsored sled made

its debut wrapped in our signature

gold at our Leadership conference

in Miami this past September, where

the partnership was frst announced.

In 2012, the franchisor of the world’s largest residential real

estate organization set out on a course to “go for the gold” to

help the maximum number of consumers in their online real

estate search and sales efforts. The prize for the CENTURY

21® System was establishing a best-in-class real estate search

experience. At about that same time, the U.S. Bobsled and Skeleton

Federation (USBSF) team, with one of the most dynamic rosters in

history, was winning races at World Cup events around the globe and

thinking “gold” for the 2014 Winter Olympic Games in Sochi, Russia.

Today, due in large part to a shared focus on quality and excellence,

and the desire to be the very best, both Century 21 Real Estate LLC

and the USBSF are right where they want to be: in a leadership

position and built to claim “gold” in the years to follow.

We sat down with two members of the C21® senior leadership

team—Rick Davidson, president and CEO, and Bev Thorne, chief

marketing offcer—to learn more about where the company’s drive

for “gold” began, where the franchisor is today on a global scale, and

what CENTURY 21 hopes to accomplish in the future.

“Our System’s

commitment and

laser-like focus on the

customers we serve

every day means that,

together, we are all

going for the gold!

And it’s clear that the

industry has taken

notice.”

– Rick Davidson, President and CEO,

Century 21 Real Estate LLC

Jan14_72-77.indd 73 12/13/13 1:02 PM

74 January 2014 RISMedia’s REAL ESTATE

Since that time, the C21® sled has been speeding down

frozen paths around the world with stops in Calgary,

Canada; Park City, Utah; Lake Placid, N.Y.; Winterberg,

Germany; St. Moritz, Switzerland; Igls, Austria; and Koe-

nigssee, Germany. While the Bobsled sponsorship helps

our marketing efforts, we are also helping the USBSF

team by raising funds to help defray the costs of being an

Olympic athlete (see sidebar). Highly visible marketing

efforts like these help us to differentiate our agents and

brokers in an extremely competitive real estate market

by showcasing their integrity and authenticity.

MP: You obviously have a visible media plan. Can you

share with us a marketing success in the past year and

how it was achieved?

BT: We are number one! According to comScore, Inc., a

global leader in digital measurement and analytics, cen-

tury21.com was the “most visited” real estate franchise

organization website from December 2012 through No-

vember 2013, a total of 12 straight months. Plus, we of-

fer customer relationship management tools that effec-

tively complete the circle of real estate sales success.

Think about that. That’s what we mean by “SMARTER.

BOLDER. FASTER.” We have taken customer relation-

ships beyond transactions for both our brokers and

agents, and their customers. We deliver more personal-

ized online interactions, with innovative mapping, a task-

friendly mobile app, school searches and other tools that

are “best in class.”

For our agents’ consumers, we offer, at no additional

cost, unique property websites for every property listing.

Every time a new listing appears on century21.com, a

unique URL is generated that features the property’s ad-

dress like 555anyst.c21.com, showcasing the seller’s

individual property for maximum homebuyer visibility.

Here’s another example: We introduced a new global

property listings website. With property transactions

today occurring from country to country and continent

to continent, we wanted to provide consumers with an

effective means of searching for properties globally. In

doing so, we are now a major presence in the global real

estate online space. Our century21global.com site gives

users access to listings from 24 countries, in 36 curren-

cies and 16 languages. Plus, each country featured on

the site has the option of including localized content for

foreign buyers to assist them in making informed deci-

sions. Consumers can also search for offces, agents,

residential, commercial and land properties. The search

results can be fltered by features like property type, and

numbers of bedrooms and bathrooms, to provide the pre-

cise listings that match the user’s needs.

RD: Our biggest success is our global growth. Our growth

strategy includes attracting the best and brightest real

estate sales professionals to join the CENTURY 21 fam-

ily. The results we’ve achieved recently are evidence that

our “SMARTER. BOLDER. FASTER.” campaign is making

signifcant strides around the world. Our brand is com-

ing to New Delhi, India; Tunis, Tunisia; Vienna, Austria;

and the fnancial capital of the world, Manhattan, with

CENTURY 21 Metropolitan, an exciting new franchisee

in the Big Apple, New York City. Not only will you fnd our

brokers and agents in 24/7 cities around the globe, but

they are prominent in secondary and tertiary markets as

well. This growth is affrmation of the positive impact we

are having on our industry and for those who seek the

dream of homeownership.

Our global growth comes at a very interesting infec-

tion point in the real estate business. Our franchisees

are strong and they come in all shapes and sizes. They

understand that growth for this generation and genera-

tions to come will result from being more connected and

collaborative with all partners in the real estate transac-

tion, from buyers and sellers to lenders and insurers. It

is critical that we continue to attract the best brokers and

agents to our family, leverage our resources to expand

our international footprint and move the company into a

global leadership position.

MP: The challenges and the opportunities of creating a

“connected experience” with real estate consumers are

bigger than ever, in large part because of the digital age.

What are you working on in this space to meet these

challenges head-on?

RD: There’s no denying that digital media consumption

is exploding. What we have done is cut through the clut-

ter and brought to market technologies that are easier

to learn and directly help to improve the productivity

and proftability of our brokers and agents. For the con-

sumer, we make sure the tools we create are enabled

for smartphone and mobile devices—both phones and

tablets. Today, all generations are media-hungry users,

from tweeting to “snap chats” to text messaging, real

estate consumers of all ages are enthusiastic media

users. Now, agents must not only provide immediate

feedback to consumers, but also deliver access to in-

formation on mobile devices, tablets and smartphones.

If not, consumers will tune out, and seek a real es-

tate professional or organization that understands this

reality.

Meeting the needs of the mobile consumer is a must.

Time spent on digital media is growing exponentially,

led by gains in smartphone and tablet activity. Our mar-

keting team has been on top of this trend for some

time. In fact, from the day we introduced our unique

Jan14_72-77.indd 74 12/13/13 1:02 PM

property websites, we made certain they would be

optimized for mobile use to help drive website traf-

fc, and we made sure they also included built-in so-

cial sharing tools, too, to maximize visibility. In March

2013, we went even further by providing every CEN-

TURY 21 offce with customizable, personalized mo-

bile apps. Each offce, at no additional cost to them,

receives a unique App downloader and text codes.

Consumer downloads are approaching 1 million, and

year to date, they have completed more than 10 mil-

lion searches on these mobile applications alone.

Our website traffc has increased 53 percent year

over year. Traffc from mobile devices now accounts

for about 33 percent of all century21.com site traffc.

BT: It all boils down to two words: “marketing conver-

gence.” We are balancing traditional and digital-age

strategies, in collaboration with key third-party service

providers, to help us transform the way we connect, en-

gage and deepen our customer relationships, and drive

market differentiation. Marketing convergence, there-

fore, means that we create messaging not only around

our iconic events and advertising campaigns like our

Indy car, USA Soccer and Bobsled sponsorships, but

we also maximize “real-time” marketing around trends,

holidays, and pop-culture events. This combination of

traditional and digital-age strategies helps to position

our agents as “SMARTER. BOLDER. FASTER.”, and

keeps our brand in front of homebuyers and sellers at

the point of consideration.

Timing is critical and real-time marketing enables us

to stay front-of-mind in the industry and with real estate

consumers. For example, we released our “Tryptophan

Slow Jam” song at Thanksgiving as a download for our

philanthropic partner, Easter Seals. The song is avail-

able on iTunes. We also shared a corresponding mu-

sic video on YouTube and Vimeo. Consumers shared

holiday photos and comments about the song using

the hashtag #Tryptophan as they recovered from their

own turkey-dinner comas. The “Tryptophan Slow Jam”

came on the heels of three other successful real-time

marketing campaigns:

1) Our Facebook post with a message for Prince

William and the Duchess of Cambridge about their

expanding family and their need to upgrade to a bigger

place after the birth of their son;

2) A video we shared across our social media channels

offering the President and Speaker of the House a cen-

tral location for a freside chat during the government

shutdown, and;

3) The C21® Delivery Landing Pad, designed to accom-

Help Team USA

Go for the Gold

CENTURY 21 is asking all C21 System members, as

well as other real estate professionals, to help sup-

port the USA Bobsled and Skeleton teams as they go

for the gold. Donations will help fund:

- National team travel to competitions

- Training and competition expenses, such as:

coaching fees; apparel; accident insurance;

medical staff; equipment; technology

To donate to Team USA, please visit

www.C21supportsUSBSF.com.

RISMedia’s REAL ESTATE January 2014 75

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