To create an emotional connection with their target, Real Estate companies intend to ensure their products are 'made for you'. When Carvalho Hosken, one of the biggest Brazilian construction companies, launched its brand new high value venture FontVieille, built up under the tailor-made concept, they also wanted their customers to feel like this. But their target was an up-to-date public, very used to this kind of speech. So, we had to find a way of proving this so much overworked attribute to a highly demanding target. We decided to take this argument literally and created a new way of visiting a model apartment: The Social Home Tour.To schedule a visit, people had to use their Facebook login, which gave us access to their profile information. This way, we could customise digital gadgets in the apartment to show their own interests when the visits were taking place. Digital portraits, TV screens and desktop computers were all connected through Wi-fi, so this customisation was made automatically, causing no further efforts to realtors.This way, every experience in The Social Home Tour was unique. The strategy proved to be right with the results showing a change of attitude that tripled the usual rate between visits and purchases and stimulated visitors to share their experience on social networks, which was useful to spread the promise of a tailor made venture.

To schedule a visit to FontVieille’s model apartment, visitors had to use their Facebook login, granting us access to their profile information. The Social Home Tour then included surprises such as: background music from a band the visitant had liked; recent shared videos on the apartment`s TV; Facebook album pictures in every portrait; and the best route to work exposed at the office’s computer. In the end, customers answered the home phone, getting a special discount. By doing that, we could make people perceive it as a real tailor made venture and created a favourable environment to evaluate the deal.The use of a social network integrated to local experience was essential for the objective, surprising a public who may have expected to meet more of the same while visiting the model apartment. In this case, customization meant emotional bond, and this made all the difference.

In opposition to the usual experiences in model apartments, visitors of The Social Home Tour demonstrated real interest at each room they were entering. After all, there could always be one more surprise that they wouldn’t want to miss. This way, the model apartment was visited without hurry, expanding time for explanation and promotion.During the period The Social Home Tour took place, 28% of the visits resulted in purchases which means 300% the average for this kind of real state venture in Brazil. 43% of the visitors shared their experience on the Facebook. The Social Home Tour proved to be a good consumer engagement tactic. It resulted in a clear change of perception, tangible by the results. Besides that, The Social Home Tour not merely worked as a sales enhancer, but as a valuable way to gain consumers' trust in a very discredited market.