Unconventional Ad Campaigns Help Florida Real Estate Brokers Boost Lagging Sales

Water bottle, poncho and iPod in tow, Keith Carreras is ready for work.

For the next six hours, he’ll settle onto a street corner holding up a two-foot arrow as he transforms himself into a human billboard. It may be hot outside, but, according to the Sun-Sentinel, Carreras said it’s worth $12 an hour.

“I come home a little tired,” said the recent high school graduate, 17, who plants himself on the corner of University and Nova drives in Davie to lure passers-by to Villa Nova condos. “The heat is the worst part.”

With the South Florida housing market slowing down, developers are turning to unusual measures — human sign twirlers included — to boost what they call “walk-in” traffic. Known as “human directional” advertising, dozens of people like Keith are becoming fixtures on street corners throughout South Florida.

With Florida home loan borrowing becoming less affordable over the past six months, Broward County condo sales fell 31 percent in June compared with June 2005. It was even worse in Palm Beach County, where sales slid 41 percent. June prices rose 5 percent in Broward and stayed flat in Palm Beach after rising by more than 30 percent year over year in January.

“Developers are having to look for any means possible to attract traffic,” said Brad Hunter, a West Palm Beach-based real estate analyst.

Human advertising, which is particularly popular among moderately priced condos (of which there are many on the market these days) is not really a new concept. Eventz Extraordinaire, a California-based company with offices in Miami, has promoted the power of the human touch for 24 years. And business is booming with real estate developers.

“Many times, these are people that our marketing department had contacted a year ago. Now they are calling back and saying, ‘Our houses are not selling,’” said Phillip Ramsden, Eventz President. “Now that it’s more of a buyer’s market, they are having to look at other, more inventive ways of looking at their product.”

Villa Nova, which does not employ Eventz Extraordinaire but hires workers independently, has had more than 400 visitors to its sales offices since the campaign started in early July. Ed Klem, a Century 21 licensed real estate broker for Villa Nova condos, said the promotions (which take place from 12-4 on weekdays and 11-5 on weekends) are “definitely working.”

His records show that about half of the 400 customers have come into the door based on the people they saw on the street.

Carol Viteri, project manager for Ponte Verde condos in West Palm Beach, calls her own experience with the strategy somewhat effective.

“Unless you really investigate and drill them on it, customers don’t really say how they’ve heard of us,” Viteri said. “[But in a slow market] we need to generate more traffic and have other means of getting the name out there.”

With Broward and Palm Beach sales slipping rapidly, the complex and many like it are hiring directionals independently to work on the weekends. Viteri said she has seen the signs in many developments she works with.

Either way, there is no shortage of people looking for the job of being a human advertiser. Many workers are people who live in the apartments.

“It’s an easy job, but you need patience,” said Carlo Ulloa, 15, who’s saving up for school clothes. “It also gets really boring.”