Just when you thought iPods had saturated the market, the real estate industry finds a new way to use them.
The Marketing Directors is handing out iPods to deliver video podcasts to brokers about a new condo project on the Upper East Side.
The podcasts will be for the project at 550 East 72nd Street being opened by Miraval, an Arizona-based spa company that plans to bring meditation, mud wraps and massages to the city.
“It’s an interesting way to share info among brokerage firms and teach them about the product,” said Jackie Urgo, executive vice president at the Marketing Directors, which is the sales agent for the project.
Video downloads on the development will circulate to brokerage firms as part of the marketing. “It’s just a vehicle that we are using to present the program to them,” Urgo said. “It’s more interactive than a PowerPoint presentation.”
Of course, brokers don’t mind receiving a free iPod.
Urgo added that if the marketing strategy works well, they plan to use it in other projects, including the Setai Condo development at 40 Broad Street.
A developer has also recently incorporated iPods into his project. Andrew Heiberger, who has been developing the Greenwich Club Residences at 88 Greenwich Street, installed iPod docking stations in all the units.
“It’s unique and necessary,” said Heiberger, founder and CEO of Buttonwood Real Estate. “It’s not gimmicky. It’s an amenity that matters.”
The docking stations not only charge iPods, but attach to two high-end speakers in the kitchen and bathroom.