The Big Open House

The Big Open House was a collaboration with Detroit Media Partnership (DMP) to promote the local housing market during an enormous one-day special event that promoted not only the local real estate market, but local municipalities, as well. The event was developed to combat negative perceptions about the metropolitan Detroit real estate market and garnered national attention.

 
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The effort required development of promotional copy, internal and external copy (including advertorial copy that appeared in DMP publications leading up to the event), banner ads, and more.

For a low price per property, participating Realtors received:

  • A listing in an exclusive, tabloid-sized stand-alone section of both Friday editions of the Detroit Free Press and the Detroit News (two days before the event, to help prospective home buyers plan their Sunday attending the event)

  • A map of participating home listings in that Sunday’s combined edition of the two newspapers

  • A lawn sign

  • Sponsor-supported Realtor gift bags

The non-profit trade association for which I worked supported the event with:

  • Content and usability input on a specialized web page produced by the newspaper publisher

  • A landing page on the association's website

  • Press releases

  • Coverage in the association’s monthly print publication and weekly email newsletter

  • An interview arranged with a local television newscast

  • Banner advertising

The event was an unqualified success, with more than 2,000 properties advertised across Michigan’s five most populous counties. Accustomed to seeing negative coverage in the newspapers, Realtors lauded the active role those same publications took in changing the narrative of the market. 

Stakeholders from both our newspaper partners and the association’s board of directors were similarly thrilled. Realtors in municipalities more than 100 miles away participated — and the only complaints came from agents who decided not to take part in the event and later regretted the decision. But even they got a re-do, as The Big Open House proved successful enough to merit another run the following year.