Mitchell Johnson the latest endorsement used in part of hot tactic for Perth’s high stakes property market

Celebrity endorsements are the latest tactic in the high stakes property market, with cricket great Mitchell Johnson lending himself to a marketing campaign for a Mullaloo home. Hot on the heels of a voice-over for a Melbourne property by Hollywood actor Liam Neeson, Johnson can be seen in a YouTube clip playing cricket on the Mullaloo home’s driveway and its beachfront street. Johnson - who appears in a baggy green with a pink children’s cricket set - highlights the home’s large size, its quiet street and the friendly neighbourhood. And as the pink cricket ball is batted down a sandy path to the beach, the clip also emphasises the home’s absolute beachfront location on Merrifield Place. Property agent Leah Westaway said she asked Johnson - a personal friend - to appear in the campaign as a favour because the laidback and outdoorsy sporting great reflected the property’s best features. “This home is the Australian Dream - buying a house on the beach where your kids can play cricket out the front,” Ms Westaway of Listed Estate Agents in Hillarys said. “This is a cul de sac and there is no reason for cars to drive down this street. “It is also one of the closest streets that you can physically get to the beach. Everyone wants to be on this street.” Ms Westaway, who is seeking offers from $3.5 million for the four-bedroom home, said the campaign was already drawing a lot of attention, garnering 4000 views in its first morning online on Friday. While it remains to be seen if celebrity endorsements grow as a property trend, Ms Westaway said real estate agents were forced to be increasingly inventive in how they attracted both buyers and sellers. For her own part, she drew heavily on her contacts in the sports world to share social media campaigns about her listed properties. It comes as listings hover near record lows of 2,870 properties on the Perth market, down from the standard 13,000 listings. “I am constantly trying to figure out how I can think outside-the-box to get more eyes on a property,” she said. “It is very competitive out there. “There are (practically) no houses for sale. Some agents don’t even have a single listing.” A Victorian family used celebrity Hollywood star Liam Neeson, who was a personal friend, to maximise attention for their listed home in Melbourne’s South East earlier this year. The comical sales campaign uses Neeson’s distinctive voice in a videoclip that plays on his Taken movie franchise, where he is renowned for using a very particular set of skills in a search effort. In the property campaign , the Academy Award-nominated actor tracks down the address of a listed property in Glen Waverley, surprising the real estate agent who is lounging in the home’s pool. The campaign made international news and the home sold at auction for $1.332m. Another recent celebrity endorsement occurred recently in Sydney, with Aussie actor Richard Roxburgh, who was in Rake and Van Helsing, appearing in a listing campaign for a home near Cronulla, due to sell at auction this month. Marketing expert Professor Tim Mazzarol of the University of WA said celebrity endorsements leveraged something called the halo effect, in which a positive perception of the person created a favourable impression for a product. However, he said in the expensive luxury property market, buyers were particularly savvy and unlikely to be swayed by a celebrity. Celebrity endorsements in this market was more indirect, with their fame helping the sales campaign reach a broader number of potential buyers. “With more eyeballs on a listing, the greater the chance of competitive bidding,” Prof Mazzarol said. The halo effect may well explain why so many high profile Perthonalities end up getting jobs in real estate. Premiership West Coast Eagles player Mark Hutchings, former West Coast footballer Corey Adamson, reality TV star Nikki Gogan, former Former newsreaders Tim Gossage and Sharlyn Vermey (nee Sarac) and TV reporter Alice Murray are all working in real estate. And it appears the halo effect also extends to good looking real estate agents who are not famous, which explains why agents tend to put a lot of effort into being well-groomed. Researchers at the University of NSW crunched the numbers a decade ago and discovered that attractive agents get 2.3 per cent more money for their clients’ properties. That equates to $21,309 on top of the median Perth house price of $926,464, under the Cotality Index. But like many things in life, the property market is subject to the age-old question as to whether good looks or good humour draw the greater attention. Property agent Mark Grogan, of O’Neill Real Estate, prefers to use humour to engage the audience in video clips about his listings, which tend to not even show his face. Lasting up to 15 minutes in length, his comedic videos have a cult following, drawing up to 500,000 views each. Mr Grogan said his goal was to give people as much factual information at possible in the video clips, while ensuring they enjoy the process. President of the Real Estate Institute of WA Suzanne Brown said some agents were now bringing in coffee carts and fairy floss machines to home open inspections. But she said these tactics were more about capturing potential seller’s attention, rather than buyers. Ms Brown said staged furniture - which cost between $3000 and $10,000 - was a highly successful marketing tactic because it helped buyers visualise how each space could be used and beautified. “Every agent will tell you that staging helps to boost prices,” she said.