How This French Real Estate Platform Helps You Escape Horrible Neighbours
SeLoger, a brand established some 30 years ago as a digital tool of the ‘90s, has grown in familiarity with the French to become their favourite real estate website. With 800,000 listings and a whopping six million unique visitors per month, the brand is the A to Z search engine for French real estate projects. Its emotional bond with customers has put it in a unique position in the French market and made it as iconic as it has become today.
To speak to that emotional connection, SeLoger collaborated with advertising agency Interruption and production company LA/PAC to create a campaign that touches on a universal truth: SeLoger can help you find the perfect home, but not the perfect neighbours. This is why ‘The Neighbours’ consists of three films touching on a few very specific scenarios where we are reminded that you can’t choose those you live near, but you can definitely ignore them in your own zone of tranquillity. After all, from wild half-naked dancing in the garden, through seagull impersonation contests and over the top water jets, we all are familiar with an awkward neighbour situation.
SeLoger’s VP brand, communication and events, Virginie Boudet, says that they asked Interruption to ‘turn the tables’ with the approach to the campaign by creating a unique connection to the market based on emotions and relationships. “Because real estate is above all about relationships.”
LBB’s Zoe Antonov spoke to the founder and creative director at Interruption Fabien Teichner, as well as SeLoger’s Virginie about the creative process behind the campaign, how they achieved the relatability in the films and how the characters within them were built.
LBB> Why did you decide to come up with three separate films and how does each of the storylines enhance the campaign?
Virginie> We all have an anecdote about a neighbour. He is not a member of our family and is not necessarily a friend, but despite this he often acts as a mirror for us, reflecting our best and worst characteristics. Each film has been designed so that the viewer can relate to both parties, because at the end of the day, we’re all somebody’s neighbour. SeLoger is a universal brand, so to address every French person we wanted to create three films and offer several possibilities for the public to identify with.
LBB> How creatively involved were you throughout the process?
Virginie> We had to make sure that our goals and brief were respected but also give the agency enough space to be creative. We all had to work as one team so we could achieve this result and be proud of the films.
LBB> What age groups did you target with each of the stories and was there a different strategy for each?
Virginie> As a universal brand, we address every French person. And that's why we have three films. We wanted each film to be targeted to a specific audience from a media point of view.
LBB> Fabien, when it comes to French humour, what kind of narratives have to be taken into consideration?
Fabien> In terms of humour, what speaks to the French is more or less true for the rest of the world. You have to make comedies that are based on insight that everyone knows, where the scenarios you construct are true to life, well acted out and that you avoid clichés as much as possible.
LBB> Why did you decide to go with comedy rather than anything else when it came to the campaign?
Virginie> Cradled in a tech culture, results-oriented and performance measurement, we have indeed focused on making people smile in this campaign. We have chosen to mark a light pause for a breather and a joyful moment during the traditional advertising breaks.
It is only with this approach and conviction that we can work on the emotional link between the brand and the French (which is the purpose of this campaign). To work on the effect, we approach several emotions: embarrassment, amusement, happiness, serenity... but always through the prism of humour!
LBB> There is no dialogue in any of the three films - why was that the best course to take and how did you manage to pack a punch with no words?
Fabien> At the heart of the campaign there was one simple insight: the annoyance caused by certain neighbours. In order for it to speak to as many people as possible and to be popular, we thought it would be easier to express it with situational comedy and without dialogue.
Indeed, the annoyance caused by the neighbours is often either visual, auditory, or possibly olfactory (more difficult to put on video) so doesn't need any dialogue. And to achieve this, casting and directing is essential.
LBB> Talk to me about the music choices and their importance in the campaign.
Fabien> For the music too, we wanted something popular that could speak to different generations. You know, the kind of music that you liked to dance to when you were younger and that’s a bit out of fashion today, but you still indulge in it sometimes. That was really what we were looking for and we are very happy with the result.
LBB> And what about colours? The three films have a very distinct art direction to them - what informed these choices?
Fabien> We wanted to show different owners and different properties so it was important to treat them differently in terms of look and feel, but we have worked with the director and the person in charge of the grading to have an overall coherence in the colour scheme so that the films would be seen as a real campaign.
LBB> What was the process of coming up with the characters like, as each of them seems to have a very rich backstory?
Fabien> I would say that we were looking for characters who had enough personality to embody the neighbours, people who inhabited and totally assumed their originality. On the other hand, we wanted characters who embodied normality, but who also had personality.
It's the contrast here that's fun between two very different worlds that clash and the viewer can identify with either side without difficulty.
LBB> Tell me about the seagull idea - how did you come up with that and who made the seagull costume?
Fabien> Strange as it may seem, there are actually animal call contests in France and in particular seagull call contests. During these contests, some participants like to dress up in the costume that corresponds to the animal they are imitating. This was our inspiration. And about the costume, it was made by a costume designer in South Africa, where we shot the films.
LBB> What has the audiences' reaction to the films been so far?
Fabien> For the moment the reactions are very positive, people talk a lot about the campaign and they laugh a lot. It started off well from the get-go, because the technical team, who weren’t always aware of what was going to happen when the scene was starting, were laughing out loud. That’s quite rare and a good sign.
LBB> What are your hopes for the campaign?
Virginie> Make sure SeLoger stays the number one real estate platform in France. We can see that by the feedback, the good results that we have at the moment. 2023 is going to be a great year for SeLoger.
