Mansion marketing includes action movie, free iPads
When seeking buyers for a $35 million luxury mansion, you might need to get creative.
That was the thought of DeeAnna Staats, owner of Carbon Mesa Estate in Malibu, Calif., and president/CEO of Staats & Co.
Carbon Mesa stars in a promotional movie and has its own custom-made iPad application that was delivered direct to a select few prospective buyers on gift-wrapped iPads.
See photos of the $35 million house at CNBC.com
“We knew with a $35 million price tag, there’s a very small, select audience,” said Andy Carmichael, who works in marketing for Staats & Co., which deals in real estate development and is launching the Feed Body & Soul chain of health-oriented “boutique restaurants."
“Research shows that most of the (high-end real estate) activity in California in the last 12 months has been from overseas buyers," Carmichael said. "So it was important that we understood who could be a potential buyer, not just domestically but internationally.”
Staats and her team decided to give remotely located potential buyers the next best thing to coming to the house. The resulting action-style short film, “The Spider and the Fly,” is not a typical real estate house tour video. It’s a professionally shot and directed mini-movie about 3 1/2 minutes long.
Using a mysterious female protagonist who is later joined by the master of the house, it allows viewers to envision what the residence would be like if they owned it.
After viewing the film, potential buyers can choose from 10 languages to read the specs and explore the house through additional video and still photos, or explore the Malibu area.
As for the mansion itself, it’s a 9,500-square-foot structure with 4,500 square feet of outdoor patio space on six acres.
It features two kitchens, six bedrooms, nine bathrooms, and panoramic views from every room overlooking Carbon Beach, otherwise known as Billionaire’s Beach (the local billionaires include David Geffen, Microsoft’s Paul Allen, mega-philanthropist Eli Broad and Oracle co-founder/CEO Larry Ellison). It also has a movie theater and a wine cellar that stores over 800 bottles.
See photos of the $35 million house at CNBC.com
