Four months ago, I asked myself the following question:
If I had a few million dollars to start a real estate brokerage right now, free from inertia, office politics and traditional expectations, what would I do?
The “now” part is key. The sandstorm of confusion and uncertainty that has hit the real estate industry since last fall has been brutal. How can we find opportunity in this situation?
I decided to explore this by creating a fictional real estate company and “launching” it at the inaugural 1000WATT Brand & Marketing Summit. Presenting the concept developed could challenge the traditional leaders at the event to think about how to leverage this moment of extraordinary change and consumer awareness moving forward, and maybe inspire some of the real estate tech players to build something new.
Introducing Avanti
I named this fictional venture Avanti, which means “forward” in Italian.
To develop this concept, I partnered with three real estate and proptech industry leaders, Heather Harmon, Craig McClelland, and Chelsea Iregio, who generously contributed to what I call the world's first flexible homebuying service.
Heather, 1000WATT Creative Director Brandon Sonnier, and I presented the Avanti concept onstage at the Summit three weeks ago, joined by Jack Miller, CEO of T3 Sixty. Not only did we present our ideas, but we also introduced the Avanti brand's visual identity, high-level messaging, advertising, and homepage design, all of which our team had created.
This was one of our most popular sessions; almost everyone in the audience got something out of it, and we managed to expand the conversation about our future beyond the usual disruptor vs. incumbents. Thanks to the audience for elevating the discussion.
Simply put, Avanti is an app-driven retainer-and-menu model aimed exclusively at homebuyers. We could and did debate the merits of this, and our belief that context gives an old idea (a menu of real estate services) new power, whether it's used as a lead generator by a traditional company or pursued as a pure play.
Design your ideas
But that's not what we want to show you here. We want to show you how your business' ideas and perspectives can be brought to life. Brandon and our design team created a visual identity that reflects the notions of possibility and choice that are at the heart of Avanti's idea. The visuals were created from carefully selected attributes that aligned with the moment and the brand's target customer. The colors, type and photography style were calculated.
This is a great example of how design is integral to business strategy.
You can see some of Avanti's work below, and you can also find more information (including the full homepage design and copy) on the 1000WATT website.