Viral marketing genius or a "Ratner moment"?

There's been a buzz going around the UK estate agency industry following a viral marketing capmpaign from upmarket London agency Douglas & Gordon.

The first of what we assume to be a series of "mockumentary's" was released last week and already the Daily Mail are on the case. 

Housing commentator Henry Pryor wonders if it will be seen as marketing genius or a "Ratner moment" for D&G in this blog post.

Personally I agree with Henry that it will do D&G far more good than harm.  Their target audience are the chic central London upper middle classes and I think that they'll appreciate the parody.  Like all good humour it's actually pretty close to the mark and anyone who has bought or sold in Central London will recognise the type of character portrayed.

Of course it will also upset a lot of people (The Sun are on their case too)....but I guess that D&G won't lose a lot of sleep over this. A quick look at their website shows that they have 12 properties under £250,000 (and none at under £200,000) but 84 at over a million.

The biggest winners though will probably be the production company who made it on behalf of D&G.

It will be interesting to see the continued reaction to it - there has already been some adverse comment from competitors but then there would be wouldn't there.

Have a look and let me know what you think....it does contain some strong language though so be careful if playing it in the office or in front of your kids.

www.cognacproperty.com