Case study: Report on House Building in Poland

Challenge

Oferteo.pl users can search for goods and services in 1063 categories. From the business perspective, categories related to construction works constitute a very important part of the site’s activity. As shown by internal statistics of Oferteo.pl, as much as 57% of requests for proposals in the site in 2016 concerned the construction industry.

In addition, the rich portfolio of the construction companies registered with the site reinforces the image of Oferteo.pl as a place in which a person planning the building or renovation will find the right contractor. On the other hand, the considerable interest expressed by persons seeking contractors makes new companies sign up with Oferteo.pl, which quickly and effectively translates into a higher number of contracts for these companies.

In this context, the biggest challenge was to ensure the right communication profiling, i.e. reach the media with information on Oferteo.pl as a site with unique data on the construction industry, where both parties to the contract will easily find a counterparty. Addressing this challenge was to translate into an increased number of requests for proposals in the construction category made on Oferteo.pl.

Solution

Having analyzed the requests for proposals made in the site, it was found that the data on house building contracts will be attractive to the media. Therefore, a key aspect of the site’s operation was chosen, which allowed to focus on an interesting context of its functioning, not on the site itself. The choice of the data was driven by the following three arguments:

1. Comprehensiveness

The issue of building a house is broad and includes various aspects, i.e. the price, the area of the plot on which the investment is to be implemented, and the choice of finishing materials such as windows or roofing. Oferteo.pl had comprehensive data in this respect, which allowed for building an expert image of the site as well as media trust.

2. Media niche

There was a lack of comprehensive media coverage of the issue. The data processed by the site had unique information value.

3. Ubiquity of the issue

The issue of building a house is of interest to many Poles. It can be covered by both the industry media involved in construction and general news media.

It was decided to draw up a “Report on House Building n Poland” based on the data. The first edition of the report was released in 2013. It was based mainly on results of requests for proposals made in Oferteo.pl by users planning to build a house, who provided detailed information on the upcoming building process.

In subsequent editions, the analyzed data was extended with the data collected as part of in-depth survey interviews with persons who had already started the house building process. This allowed to obtain information on, among others, the average building time or the difference between the planned and final costs of the construction.

The report was designed to be issued periodically from the start. The issues addressed in the Report have evolved with each subsequent edition. In order to extend the group of media interested in the report and reach a greater number of users, the Report was gradually broadened with lifestyle topics. The respondents were asked, among others, whether their house would be built in the city (how big) or in the country, at what age they were starting the construction, what was the main reason for the decision to build a house, where they lived earlier, and what they intended to do with their previous place of residence after moving.

Timing

An important element of the Report’s communication strategy was timing. Subsequent editions were released in early spring, when investors are more active in seeking construction crews.

The distribution of each new material started by contacting the major nationwide media: both general news and construction industry media. Then the material was provided to other media, with smaller reach. Likewise, local versions of the Report were prepared for the regional media, in which Poles’ building preferences across individual regions were addressed.

Effects

These efforts made every subsequent edition of the “Report on House Building in Poland” become the most complete, cyclical publication about Poles’ building preferences. During that time the number of requests for proposals concerning house building in Oferteo.pl increased more than threefold from 3,286 in 2012 to 10,285 in 2016.

The “House Building Report” is popular with the major media, which every year publish their materials based on the Report. The Report results were quoted by dailies and periodicals such as Rzeczpospolita, Gazeta Wyborcza, Polityka, Newsweek, and Puls Biznesu, or local titles within the Polska Press Group, among others Dziennik Polski, Gazeta Wrocławska, Głos Wielkopolski, Echo Dnia, Gazeta Pomorska, and others.

Thanks to this, Oferteo.pl gained regular presence in major web media such as Onet.pl, wp.pl, Interia.pl, Bankier.pl, money.pl Forsal.pl, Dziennik.pl, Ładnydom.pl, Wyborcza.biz, and Next.gazeta.pl.

Poles’ building preferences were also covered by TVP Kraków and TVP Wrocław as well as radio stations such as RMF FM, Radio Zet, Polskie Radio, Radio PiN, Eska, and Antyradio.

The Report was also used in news releases of Polska Agencja Prasowa and in agency materials of Newseria and Newsrm.tv.

During the nine editions in total (2013-2021), the Report has been quoted in more than 8600 online and press publications, including TV and radio coverage.

Thanks to addressing the issue of building, Oferteo.pl entered into cooperation with the following entities:

- organizer of International Construction and Architecture Fair (BUDMA) – media patron, presence of Oferteo.pl in publications dedicated to the fair and publication of the Report on the fair's website, which, in turn, provides the opportunity to win potential customers;

- presentation of the Report’s results by a representative of Oferteo.pl at a national expert conference for architects (“Home for a family”), under the auspices of the Minister of Infrastructure and Building.

      

Follow us on LinkedIn.