In with the in crowd
When a real-estate market has a number of high-end residential developments to offer to domestic and international buyers, development companies often look for new ways to market their product.
A prime location and trendy facilities, such as swimming pools, fitness studios or underground parking, are now commonplace on the Polish market. One of the more recent marketing trends is connecting celebrities with particular projects.
One of the first developers to try to harness this star quality is Australian firm Opal Property Developments. It is working on the Scheibler loft apartments in an old textile factory in Łódź. The company has decided to invite Polish actor Borys Szyc, a popular artistic personality, to be involved in the development.
Joanna Delbar representing Opal Property Developments says that the company has never used a celebrity to promote its investments and the idea of using Borys Szyc came from a public relations agency.
"Borys Szyc is like a boy from the neighborhood who has succeeded and who could live next door," explains Delbar. "Moreover, Borys is a man of success, who always highlights the sentiment he feels towards Łódź, his hometown."
Delbar believes that this kind of marketing solution is effective when the particular personality is suitable for a project. In the case of the Łódź lofts, Szyc's Łódź upbringing makes him the obvious choice.
"He knows that Księżny Młyn, the area where the lofts are located, carries a strong sentimental value for the city's population," says Delbar. "Szyc, as a person from Łodź, helps to convince its inhabitants that this investment is a chance for this heritage as well as for the city."
"A loft is more like a workshop for a creative person who needs a space, rather than an apartment," says Borys Szyc in promotional materials for the Scheibler lofts.
According to Delbar, not every investment project needs celebrity face. "We would not recommend this strategy for, for example, standard apartment developments," Delbar says. "This is something suitable for atypical and exclusive apartments, which could be offered to a special and profiled group of customers."
Delbar was tight-lipped when it came to the question of whether Szyc received a discount on the price of his loft.
New approach
Maria Hahn of CB Richard Ellis Polska says that using a celebrity profile is a trend that has just begun on Poland's real-estate market.
Most often, the celebrity is limited to the architect of the project. Orco Group's Złota 44 project, which will be an exclusive apartment building located in Warsaw's city center, was designed by world-famous architect Daniel Liebeskind, something the company has been keen to point out. A number of famous names have also been linked with the building, including Leszek Czarnecki (one of the richest people in Poland), Jacek Bąk (a football player) and Mariusz Treliński (a director). "I cannot comment on the news and names of famous people who have been mentioned in connection with the Złota 44 project," says Anna Kowalczyk, a spokesperson for the project. She denies that the firm is working with celebrities to promote the development.
"Leszek Czarnecki certainly will not live in Złota 44," says Artur Wiza, a spokesperson for Getin Holding and LC Corp, which are owned by Czarnecki. "I don't have any idea why this kind of information was published by media."
Retail trend
Shopping centers are also keen to catch the trend but some marketing professionals say that it is not official policy by retail centers to offer celebrities free shopping to draw them in.
"It is not shopping centers but their tenants that carry out this kind of promotion," says Anna Mieszkowska from Mediadem, a public-relations agency. "However, shopping centers occasionally organize events like 'shopping nights' for VIPs and invited guests and during these kinds of events, those chosen clients enjoy special promotional deals."
"People like to be fashionable, therefore producers and marketing specialists distribute a fashion through celebrities," says Prof. Jacek Wasilewski from the Warsaw School of Social Psychology. "So if celebrities are present somewhere, we also want to be there."
Wasilewski believes that Poland is unlike Western Europe and the US, where the celebrity market has reached its apogee: "In most cases when some celebrity is connected with a brand, place or product, it is a result of some accident, which is used for promotion."
However, Wasilewski is convinced that this situation is going to change soon. "The celebrity market in Poland has to be developed, because people are tired of traditional marketing," he says. "Poland's middle class is looking for opportunities, for products to be more diverse, and different celebrities could be used for different target groups or brands."
