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The podcast episode explores the growing interest in artificial intelligence (AI) in real estate and the need for agents to embrace its potential applications. It features David Marine, the chief marketing officer for Coldwell Banker, discussing the successful rebranding efforts of the company and the positive impact it had on changing people's perception. The conversation also touches on personnel changes, upcoming events featuring Shaquille O'Neal, and the partnership between Coldwell Banker and Amazon Prime for Thursday Night Football. The discussion emphasizes the importance of storytelling in creating a compelling brand and highlights the role of technology, particularly AI, in the real estate industry. It provides insights into the challenges and successes of rebranding and showcases the broader perspectives and interests of the individuals involved.
00:00:00 - David
There's a lot you can't open your web browser today without seeing something around artificial intelligence and AI and all that stuff. And there's a lot of infatuation around it within the real estate, as there should be. I don't know where that's specifically going to go and how it's going to be used on a regular basis, but I know that it's going to be used and it's something that any agent out there needs to start Theorying out.
00:00:29 - Bill
You're listening to the Real Estate Sessions podcast and I'm your host, Bill Risser, executive Vice President, Strategic Partnerships with RateMyAgent, a digital marketing platform designed to help great agents harness the power of verified reviews. For more information, head on over to Ratemyagent.com. Listen in as I interview industry leaders and get their stories and journeys to the world of real estate. Hi, everybody. Welcome to episode 359 of the Real Estate Sessions podcast. Thank you so much for tuning in. Thank you so much for telling a friend this is going to be another shortcuts episode where I kind of venture back in time, find a guest that I haven't heard from or chatted with in a little while. And this was a little bit more than a little while. This was nearly five years ago, in September of 2018, that I interviewed David Marine, the Chief Marketing Officer for Coldwell Banker. And so we're bringing him back. We're going to find out what's happening in his world. We're also going to probably bring up the Mets because he's a huge Mets fan, sports fan in general. So let's get this thing started. David, welcome to the podcast.
00:01:31 - David
Thanks so much for having me back, Bill.
00:01:33 - Bill
You know, I didn't realize that it's been nearly five years since we last recorded that episode.
00:01:39 - David
I didn't realize that either until you had referenced in an email to me that we talked in 2018. And I'm like, man, that feels like the world has spun around a few times since then.
00:01:51 - Bill
I was going to say we were in a whole different place in 2018. I mean, the market was doing great. We had this ten year run going, or call it eight year run, and everything was good and man, a lot's changed. And so let's start there. What I like to do on these shortcut episodes is ask the guest what's happened in your life. It could be professionally, personally, but in that time span, what's that one thing that stands out and you go, wow, this is a big moment in that five year period.
00:02:22 - David
Yeah, pretty much. Probably like right after our podcast recording is when we started embarking on the rebrand effort for Coldwell Banker. And so rebranding the core brand, our global luxury, our commercial division basically took up four years of my life during that point in time and really great to be on the other side of that and also to see the impact that we hoped it would make. It did make in changing people's perception. It re energized our network and all that. And then since that time, also, I now have my oldest son in college. So finally those 529 plans I've been investing in for the last 17 years, finally starting to use them.
00:03:04 - Bill
Good.
00:03:04 - David
And it's also depressing to see that, you know what, I thought there would be more money in there, but there isn't.
00:03:10 - Bill
Yeah. It's a big milestone as a parent is that first child going away. I'll give you another one. When your son turns 30, it's going to feel way different. When you tell people, when they say, how old's your son? You say, 30. It's a different feeling. I hit that.
00:03:28 - David
I can't even imagine that. But yes, you're so right. He's turning 19 this month, so even like, on the brink of 20 and having kid in your 20s seems like odd because in my own mind, I'm not that far from there. Right.
00:03:43 - Bill
Yeah, it was just a little while ago. No big deal. Yeah. Let me ask you a quick follow up on the rebrand. There had to be some feedback, both very positive but also negative. When that happened, how do you handle that? Did it take you someplace where you wondered if the team had made the right decision or did you stick to your guns and go, no, this is really where we need to be and this is why we're there?
00:04:08 - David
Oh, yeah. There was plenty of feedback. I don't know if you realize this, but everyone in real estate is a marketing expert and just anyone in general is a marketing expert. But there was definitely feedback. There was negative feedback. And what was a big learning lesson for me, and I didn't anticipate at the time, was just how Coldwell Banker hadn't changed his logo for over 40 years. So this was a brand and identity that basically everybody had known and lived with for the majority of their lives. And then you're coming along and you're changing it, and change as a whole stirs up emotions. It's hard. So there was plenty of backlash. And I remember the weekend after it launched, just being at home and looking at all the comments on Facebook and that stuff and just reading everyone wondering, like, is this the right thing? Am I doing the right move in making this change? But at its core, I knew that this was something that had been talked about since I joined the company, which was 22 years ago, and always been debated, and no one took the plunge on it. But what it forced me to do, and the biggest lesson I learned is putting together a story as to why you're doing this that convinces both on the rational and the emotional side of things. And then what I saw is after we had talked about doing it and initially started showcasing it, I went on basically like a 20 city tour of telling that story to individuals and as soon as you got in front of them and you explained it, it was like instant, oh, makes perfect sense. And now you see that after the fact. It's like everybody loves it. I think we've sold and we don't make money on it, but we sold over a million dollars worth of apparel in the first year of it. So they're embracing it, they're embodying it. It is now just commonplace and everybody looking back will say like, yeah, this is the right move. But for the first couple of weeks afterwards, it was tense. So it was one of the biggest learning experiences of my career.
00:06:12 - Bill
Yeah, I just can't imagine that's such a big change, especially for there are a lot of longtime employees at Coldwell Banker. So that was part of your audience that you had to deal with. So congratulations on that. There's a lot of things that happened in the I don't want to call it the mothership, but Realogy becomes anywhere. Some recent changes. I mean, who thought Sherry Chris would ever retire? I didn't think that would ever happen. And then I know Ginger Wilcox from back in the day and she comes on board. Right. So there's a lot of stuff happening. But let's focus in on Coldwell Banker. Is there something that you can share? Sometimes you can, sometimes you can't. That's either new or what's next?
00:06:56 - David
Yeah, right now we're in the midst of it's weird because typically summer, a lot of people on vacation, things kind of slow down, the market, kind of cools a little bit. And this year we anticipated that the first half of the year was probably going to be a bit of a slow start. And then we're anticipating the back half of the year. Things are going to start picking up and momentum is going to build as you head into 2024. So we actually moved a lot of our focus to, hey, let's focus on the back half of the year to kind of prime the pump heading into what we expect to be a good 2024. So we've got our Gen Blue experience coming up in October, which we're always pumped about. It's our national event. I'm super excited because Shaquille O'Neill is our keynote speaker and in my mind, he is a American treasure. We should do everything we can to protect that man. He's just going to be fantastic. Not only hall of Fame basketball player, but fantastic business savvy branding guy, all that. So excited for them. And then we're doing something different this year from a marketing standpoint is we are doing a partnership on Thursday Night Football with Amazon Prime. And so we'll be running ads across those games as well as doing some social activation around it using our Move meter, which is a brand new feature on our website, compares the cost of living and a whole bunch of other factors between any two cities. So we'd be doing some move meter matchups, not only of the games that are on Thursday Night Football, but allowing our network to customize videos, social to do move meter matchups for any game that's happening across the country. So you live in a college town, and you want to do Clemson versus Florida State. Put the Tallahassee Greenville South Carolina or Columbia South Carolina in there. You create that graphic meter matchup. You got your local high schools, and by me, it's Mountain Lakes versus here's. We'll see who wins on the field. But here's the matchup as real estate. So we think that's going to be a really great social driver and talk track to get people thinking about, oh, what are the possibilities of moving not just in a town next door, but even across the country?
00:09:03 - Bill
I love that idea. That's great. Yeah. I'm thinking good. Yeah. So Tampa Bay plays La, and you get to yeah, that's exactly I think.
00:09:11 - David
Tampa Bay is going to win that real estate matchup.
00:09:13 - Bill
I know we are. Yeah. That's an easy one. No, I think that's great. That's awesome. I know of another speaker other than Shaq that's going to be at Gen Blue. Is Sean Carpenter coming back? Is that what I hear? That right.
00:09:25 - David
Sean Carpenter is the Gen Blue mainstay. I love having him there every year. We met at a Gen Blue when it was called the International Business Conference, like, 15 years ago, or maybe even longer than that. So I've known Sean for a long while. Whenever I can get him to be a part of the Gen Blue experience, I know it's good. He always brings, one, the energy and two great insights into his sessions. So excited to have him there. And then it's always just good to hang out with him for a little bit when we get to see each other in person. But we text back and forth and on Facebook and stuff throughout the year. And he also likes to prod on the Mets and college football, but Pete Alonzo on the Mets is a Florida Gator, so he's got some small affection for them there.
00:10:11 - Bill
Yeah, small. Geez. Yeah, true. I always want to find out from the people that I've talked to in the past, and I dug into your personal life a little bit. We know a little bit about your family on these shortcut episodes. I just want to know, first of all, I think you already had your vacation this summer, right? If I remember right, I might have saw a poster, too, and you mentioned your son had enough college. Is there anything else kind of big on the horizon for the Marine family?
00:10:40 - David
Well, one goes away to college, the thing was like, well, how is the family going to just how are the kids because I have four boys. How are the brothers going to react? What was crazy was the instant change in dynamics in our household. As soon as we got back. It was like, oh, there's a new pecking order, and here's how it's going to work. And then all of a sudden, then when my older son comes back, it then mixes things back up again. And now who's trying to get his attention? Who's trying to impress him? So next big thing on the horizon is we're heading down the shore. My parents have a place down at the Jersey Shore, so we'll be there for a four day weekend before we go and then take him down to school, and then it resets back into school mode. And my wife teaches at the high school. And so then that's when soccer kicks in for my younger two. And so that it's back into that routine. I actually coach my youngest son's soccer team, so I got to get back into scheduling the practices and the game schedules and the balance, and who can go here, there, and everywhere. But to me, that's a fun part of it. And I enjoy getting to be part of their lives and with the team, even though some seasons there's not very many victories.
00:11:54 - Bill
Speaking of not many victories, that's a great segue. I'm glad you threw that talk about the Mets.
00:11:58 - David
Yeah, okay, sure.
00:12:01 - Bill
Look, we chat back and forth on messenger about usually the Mets and what's going on with that team. David, we're recording this on August 2, 2023, and all that money that was spent, well, at least now you're still paying a big chunk of it, but Verlander and Scherzer are gone. What's going on with the Mets?
00:12:26 - David
It's a fire sale. So there was great anticipation for this year, right, that it was going to be another World Series run. But here's the thing. So I was at your beloved Padres Mets first round playoff game last fall, and Max Scherzer was the starter of game one. And I was pumped, and I brought my boys to the game, and my dad, because I was like, this is the game to go to. Scherzer's on the mound. Game one playoff. City field. He laid the biggest egg, arguably, in Mets playoff history in that game. I think he gave up, like, five or six runs in the first two innings or whatever and lost. And so that has been, in Mets fans minds, is that that's what we got Scherzer for and he let us down. Plus, he's 40 years old. Verlander at 39, they had multiple years left. I think they both had at least one more year left on their contract. So actually trading them and getting some young guns in return, I'm all for it. Especially one of the guys is Acuna, whose older brother Ronald on the Braves is, like, MVP candidate. If he is even 75% as good as his brother, that is the steal of the century. So I get it. This year is not going anywhere, but I'm hopeful that it's giving us some more building blocks in our farm system and we got some good pieces in place through Lindor, Alonzo. So I think we'll be set up. But yeah, this year's a wash. Look.
00:13:49 - Bill
I've been through many of those know, time with the Padres. The relocation to St. Pete has been really fun to watch because this is a team right in Tampa Bay that absolutely has solved the we don't have a lot of money problem. And it is that farm system that Kevin Cash is an incredible manager. It's just been a lot of fun to watch. A little weird year this know, with the first two and a half months, just crazy good and then just tanking in July and now battling out with the Orioles of all teams in the.
00:14:22 - David
East, we'll see that's the crazy part. The AL East is the best division in baseball right now. Tampa Bay is incredible that every single year they contend and they do it their way. And I think there is a real estate lesson there as well, especially from a marketing standpoint of like, hey, I don't have the dollars to invest in doing this huge thing that I see everybody else do. But here's what I know that I'm really good at. And Tampa Bay is really good at identifying talent, building up that talent and then maximizing them for the time in which they have them before they have to go and they sign a max contract somewhere in real estate. And even as a marketer, it's like find those areas where, you know, this works for you and this is successful. And so therefore, let me put my time and energy into that and not worry about what anyone else is doing. I remember early on, my father gave me some advice about never count anyone else's money. Don't worry about what somebody else is making or worry about what you're doing with yours. And I think that Tampa Bay does that. And from whether you have a small budget, big budget or whatever, figure out what you can control and make sure you're getting the most from that without worrying about what anyone else is doing.
00:15:40 - Bill
I've never heard it defined that way. That's perfect. Here the last question, David, I'll get you going. What has your attention in real estate right now? There's always something, right? You're keeping your eye on it.
00:15:52 - David
You can't open your web browser today without seeing something around artificial intelligence and AI and all that stuff. And there's a lot of infatuation around it within the real estate, as there should be. I don't know where that's specifically going to go and how it's going to be used on a regular basis, but I know that it's going to be used and it's something that any agent out there needs to start figuring it out. And I'm not a big fan of Gary Vee, but I did see a post that he put on a video and he compared it to the advent of social media. He said, remember when there were executives who would be like, I don't use email, but my assistant prints out my emails and hands them to me and then I read them. He's like, that is you if you are not starting today to investigate what stuff like chatGBT or other AI tools are doing. So spend a little time every day just testing it out. I thought that was pretty good advice to figure out how does it work specifically for me in what I do every day, how does it work within the real estate spectrum? So that would be something I'm keeping an eye on and trying to figure out what is the best way that that can work for me personally, but also as part of the Cold Banker brand.
00:17:11 - Bill
Yeah. I've adopted a website called Podflow AI that now does my show notes and it pulls out quotes for it, writes a blog post. It does all now.
00:17:23 - David
All right.
00:17:23 - Bill
I have to go in and tweak it a little bit, but I didn't have to do the heavy lifting up front. So there's some opportunities. I think you're right. But it's got to fit. Once again, it's not a silver bullet. It's not going to fix everything. And it just has to be used the right way. I think we talk about all the time, technology makes good agents better and that's what it is. Right. It's not something that's going to save somebody if they're not a good agent.
00:17:50 - David
Yeah. I've also been exposed because with my wife as a teacher, she's trying to vet, like, hey, this feels like this paper was written in AI. So there are now tools that can identify whether writing is developed by AI or wow. So it's everywhere. So it's coming.
00:18:08 -...
