Douglas Elliman hires a new creative head as it plans a rebranding

The firm also enlisted a new ad agency

Amy Rosenfeld (Credit: LinkedIn, Facebook, and iStock)
Amy Rosenfeld (Credit: LinkedIn, Facebook, and iStock)

Douglas Elliman‘s pulling the plug on its national multi-million-dollar “It’s Time for Elliman” marketing campaign.

The brokerage has hired a new creative head and enlisted ad agency Grey New York to rebrand its look over the next year. Amy Rosenfeld, formerly a creative director at luxury conglomerate LVMH, is joining Elliman as vice president of creative, a newly created role.

Elliman COO Scott Durkin said Rosenfeld had been on his radar for about a year. She will be a liaison between Elliman, its agents, and Grey.

“She will be the creative head to initiate and work with them to come up with the best campaign and new brand and new look while also protecting our legacy brand,” said Durkin.

A new national campaign, still lifestyle-focused, will be rolled out in addition to a new image for the company’s marketing materials.

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Durkin said the move made sense following Elliman’s expansion into other markets — most notably the Teles deal that grew the firm’s West Coast footprint. The acquisition added over 500 agents and 20 offices, making the firm one of the largest residential players on the West Coast. Despite the sluggish market, Durkin said the brokerage isn’t changing its plans.

In 2017, Elliman rolled out a year-long, multimillion-dollar campaign dubbed “It’s Time for Elliman.” It consisted of television spots, print and digital advertising, billboards and event sponsorship. At the time, the firm said it was looking to make a bolder statement in its newer markets, like Los Angeles and Aspen.

“This is going to reach 750 million people — from outdoor to print to digital to social,” former vice president of marketing Dana DeVito said in 2017. “We’ve been scouring the country and making sure that if you’re not aware of Douglas Elliman, you will soon become aware.”

DeVito, who spearheaded the campaign following the departure of Nicole Oge, left Elliman last year. In May, Elliman hired Samantha Yanks as chief marketing officer. She resigned a month later.

In November, former Town executive Melissa True joined Elliman to head agent recruitment and development efforts. On the agent side, Richard Phan — who spent more than a decade at Corcoran with top broker Carrie Chiang — joined the firm. And Lindsay Barton Barrett, one of Compass’ early hires, made the jump to boost her new development business.