Working with one of British Columbia’s most well-known brands

Here be dragons. If you haven't heard that phrase before, let me explain.

In medieval times, it was a phrase placed on maps to reference unexplored territories. Which is why slaying dragons, and opening up the world to adventurers, has become the precise mission of Real Estate Works, the leading homesearch marketplace in British Columbia.

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What's in a name?

REW has gone through more than a few changes in its storied history. You need to look no further than the company’s name itself to see that change is a big part of this brand’s story.

First, REW stood for Real Estate Weekly, a physical publication that agents and brokers depended on in the pre-internet era. Then, as things headed online, the company evolved into Real Estate Wire, offering listings to all who visited REW.ca. In 2020, the company entered maybe its final form…time will tell on that one.

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Real Estate Works

Same acronym, different focus.

The new REW has a singular mission: To become the ultimate guide for homeseekers in BC. And we’ve been so thrilled and honoured to come along for the ride with Simon, Justin, and the entire team at 110 W 2nd Ave in Vancouver.

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The call to adventure

With a new leadership team coming in from South Africa, REW needed a local partner here in Vancouver who could help drive a content strategy that resonated with Canadian homeseekers. Which is exactly where Something Great entered the chat.

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Right at home

Our team has created content for brands for over a decade, not just in the real estate space but, there, too. We've helped household names like RE/MAX, Engel & Völkers, Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices, Dominion Lending, and Roofstock reach their target audiences with sensible content strategies.

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The journey begins

We started slowly with REW, helping create content for the website, cleaning up old social channels, setting up new ones, implementing processes and SOPs, and announcing new features like the introduction of rental properties on REW (a pretty great alternative to the Craigslist pray-you-aren’t-getting-scammed status quo). After a year of working together, we started to get more intertwined with content strategy and content creation at the company.

Once we’d established goals for REW’s content, Something Great began to inform and produce nearly all of the content on REW’s social media channels and blog, now officially called The Guide. We'd eventually takeover newsletter creation for the brand as well.

With our help, REW has become the #1 homesearch platform in Western Canada, garnering over 50 million home searches on the site per year.

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In it for the long haul

We’ve written hundreds of articles for The Guide, driving new traffic to the website from search by the thousands. Our strategy involved creating content about the neighbourhoods of Greater Vancouver, the process and options surrounding buying and selling a home in BC, financial considerations, mortgage options, news breakdowns, and even an April Fools Joke or two for our Vancouver locals.

Here are three examples of the hundreds of guides we planned, wrote, edited and designed for REW, plus one example of a newsletter we created.

• Raging Bull: The Bearish and Bullish Case for Canada's Housing Market
• Sometimes, New is Better: Why Canadian Buyers Should Consider New Developments
• Home is Where the (Pixelated) Heart Is

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The content flow

Content was designed to flow from The Guide directly to REW’s social media channels and newsletter, two key components of the brand’s content distribution pipeline. We helped turn our guides into digestible newsletter pieces and social media videos that turned heads and stopped people from scrolling, reaching millions of homeseekers along the way.

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The sky's the limit for REW

In our time with the company, we created hundreds of guides, social media posts, and newsletters, took part in the brand’s transformation from Real Estate Wire to Real Estate Works, and gave a fresh voice to one of BC’s most recognizable brands.

That’s something great if you ask us.