It was still dark on a recent Tuesday morning when photographers began to gather in the lobby of the Sutton Tower, a skyscraper on New York’s Upper East Side. The building was still under construction.
As the sun peeked over the Manhattan skyline, 30 of them were taking photos on the rooftop, creating content for a total of nearly 2 million followers.
Marketers have for years pursued trendsetters who can shape consumer behavior with their recommendations, and influencers use that demand to trade targeted posts for perks.
That goes for real estate as well, where celebrities sell hashtagged images of luxury condos in exchange for payouts and freebies. Just a few years ago, real estate agents hired models to attend parties and paid people like actress Tavi Gevinson for highly “filtered” photos advertising their properties.
But the currency of these transactions is changing. Today, handbags are more discreet and money is rarely at stake. Instead, developers simply offer niche influencers entry to their towers. In return, they get a direct line to a more targeted audience.
In skyscrapers across the country, photographers, musicians and others are increasingly aligning their Instagram and TikTok accounts with these companies. For some, especially those who previously had to resort to trickery to gain access to Manhattan’s most exclusive buildings, now it’s just a matter of walking through the front door.
“You’re definitely giving away free publicity,” said Gregory Berg, a freelance photographer who has nearly 60,000 followers on Instagram, where his photos often feature skyline views and unique angles.
He was invited to Sutton Tower along with other photographers with modest followings on social media and was happy to accept the invitation, despite the very early start.
“I’ve been roofing and climbing buildings for years,” Berg said. “It’s nice not to have to climb scaffolding.”
Sutton Tower, a 121-apartment condominium designed by Danish architect Thomas Juul-Hansen, is the tallest residential building on the East River. The developers hope to sell the duplex penthouse for US$70 million (R$360 million).
But that unit is not yet commercially available, which is an exciting prospect for Joe Thomas, a photographer with nearly 150,000 followers on Instagram.
He, whose recent work includes the December cover of Condé Nast’s Traveler magazine, specializes in perspective-shifting images of New York City architecture.
“It’s about access,” Thomas said. “Once this building is completed, unless you are the owner or a friend of the owner, you will never see this view again.”
“Social networking is really critical to luxury development marketing right now,” said Beth Fisher, who heads up sales and marketing at Sutton Tower. Mainly because the pool of potential buyers shrinks as prices rise.
“The reason we’re doing this specifically here now is because we’re putting this property on the market.”
An endorsement from a trusted influencer can have a significantly greater impact than traditional advertising. In a Matter Communications study, 61% of respondents said they were more likely to be influenced by an influencer’s recommendations than self-created content.
Other than coffee and a modest serving of donuts, the Sutton Tower photographers received no compensation for their time. Everyone understood that they were allowed to keep any images they took, but they were expected to post at least a few on their social media channels, with hashtags and geotags that identified the building.
No cash is the new standard in these deals, said Dan Tubb, director of sales for the Towers of the Waldorf Astoria, a 375-unit residential development being built next to the hotel of the same name in New York. Homes cost from $1.8 million to $18.5 million.
The Waldorf has been actively including influencers in its marketing strategy since November 2019. Since then, its Instagram following has increased by 32%, according to a spokesperson.
In May, the brand invited Aysedeniz Gokcin, a Turkish pianist with 105,000 followers on Instagram, to come to New York and film herself playing Cole Porter’s historic original Steinway grand piano, which is housed in the Waldorf sales gallery. She was joined by her Turkish counterpart Kaan Sekban (over 500k followers on Instagram), and together they performed Frank Sinatra’s “New York, New York”.
It was more than a fun maneuver. The Waldorf was carefully monitoring traffic to the event and was pleased with the interactions generated on the social network – over 1.5 million.
Gokcin is irritated by the term “influencer”. A classically trained pianist, she checked into the Waldorf Astoria hotel at age 11 when she traveled from Turkey to audition at the Juilliard School, and said the opportunity to collaborate with the brand was a personal thrill.
“It wasn’t transactional,” she said. “Playing such a legendary piano was magical.”
Influencer marketing, a $24 billion industry, has been spreading across TikTok, Instagram and Facebook for over a decade. The residential real estate sector took longer to accept the idea.
But during the pandemic, the trend gained momentum in Florida, followed by a boom in luxury construction and sales. In 2021, the number of multifamily properties sold in the southern state totaled $11.4 billion — more than double the previous record sales of $5.5 billion in 2016.
“We’re seeing this a lot in Miami, where new buildings are coming up, and they get a lot of influencers to post party content inside an apartment that’s not even on the market yet,” said Austin Cohen, co-founder of marketing consultancy 456 Growth.
“For influencers, a key part of their business is being seen on the move and in the most desirable places. And for companies, it helps to reduce their marketing budgets.”
But it’s not always free. Some developers, particularly in neighborhoods where their luxury projects can raise rents, are leaning on local community influencers, paying consulting fees in exchange for positive posts.
Domain Cos., developer of Estela, a two-building luxury residential complex in New York’s South Bronx, has hired Amaurys Grullon. The local artist and entrepreneur has 49k followers on his Instagram account.
Grullon, who said he would be happy to also get a discount on an apartment at Estela when it opens in 2023, is opposed to the term “gentrification” and said that by partnering with a developer, he is working to ensure that local residents benefit from changes in the neighbourhood.
“We deserve beautiful things in our neighborhoods,” he said. “We’ve seen how things were done in the past, when developers would come here and fail. So we’re changing the narrative now and making sure the community is included.”
Translated by Luiz Roberto M. Gonçalves
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