New man at helm of marketing for Zoopla

Zoopla has appointed Gareth Helm to the newly created role of chief marketing officer.

Helm has over 25 years’ experience in key marketing roles, most recently as brand director of MoneySuperMarket Group.

Before that he was marketing director at Mars UK and Innocent Drinks and has worked in various marketing roles at both Nestle and Unilever.

Helm, who will be part of Zoopla’s executive team reporting directly to CEO Alex Chesterman, will be responsible for the group’s overall marketing strategy.

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16 Comments

  1. NewsBoy

    Too late mate!  The OnTheMarket horse has bolted

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    1. danny

      The on the market horse looks to have green curtains around it at the minute. Someone some where must be deciding whether to give it a lead injection to make it better

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  2. marcH

    If I were Z with a floundering share price I would be looking for ways to grow my client base. No point in hiring a marketing whizz-bang just to attract one side of the equation if your stock levels are drying up !

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  3. interestedobserver

    Better as in product, strategy or just audience Danny? To be fair I have noticed that in my local area the 48 hour delay is material as far as lettings of of executive homes goes. Makes no difference for sales in the same segment as supply appears ahead of demand, but the executive lettings market is red hot and agent mailing lists, then OTM then the duopoly are certainly the order of importance in my part of Yorkshire.  For executive lettings at least. still an artificial advantage in some regards, but one that’s hard to imitate so has some value.

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  4. PeeBee

    Yet another “marketer” with no perceivable knowledge of product enters the industry through the back door.

    Oh, joy.

    Still – I guess he will fit right in with all the others at Z etc who simply don’t understand…

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    1. Paul H

      You wait until you see the new “zooplafied” product that was launched by Phil Spencer at the ESTAS. There is no way a property person came up with this idea.

      I’m predicting over 1000 comments when that out!

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      1. PeeBee

        I’m envisaging ‘back-of-a-Mars-bar’ advertising, matey – whaddya reckon? ;o)

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        1. Paul H

          “I’m envisaging ‘back-of-a-Mars-bar’ advertising, matey”…funny you should say that PeeBee, as the product was actually launched on the back of the beer coasters at the event.

          I envisage that there will be a lot of explaining required to 99% of an agents vendors with this product, which appears to be nothing more than a gimmick. It also looks like they are building a tv campaign around the product!

          Interesting times!

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    2. PeeBee

      I’ll take it the ‘Dislike’ was from my favourite Marketing Minion… ;o)

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  5. GPL

    Free Smoothies & Chocolate?

    Now we’re talking!

    Zoopla re-launched as New Recipe Zoopla, allergy free?…. not for estate agents unfortunately!

    Next announcement for Zoopla should be the hiring of Kofi Annan…. to try and rebuild the bridges so carelessly burned by Chesterman & Co…. no point tho, it’s not about the estate agency members…. it’s all about the Brand! Doh!!

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  6. Robert May

    I have to ask , what has happened to Mr Hall?  communications, marketing possibly different roles but when communications has been marketing for so long and so aggressively one has to wonder what is going on.  Whether this is the beginning of the next phase or whether this is a replacement for someone who was irking everyone.  Reporting directly to Alex Chesterman is corporate speak for this has gone horribly wrong, that WILL NOT happen again.

    Now then Peebee, yesterday I tasked you with having a look at your terms and conditions.  Now you have presumably left either Rightmove or Zoopla what are you  doing about all your data that is still fuelling your competition? (The portal you have left is a competitor to the one that you have retained and OTM, that portal will still be supplying you dead filing and comparable data to your agency competition)

     

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    1. RealAgent

      I think its fair to say we may not get too many more press releases from Mr Hall. I think that Z have realised he did more to assist OTM and harden the resolve of those that joined it than any positive comments made by the members themselves!

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    2. PeeBee

      Actually, Robert, I haven’t left a portal.  I was only on one – OTM is providing ADDITIONAL marketing for my clients.  That being said I have highlighted what you have said to the Partner who ‘deals’ with all such contractual shenanigans as we clearly need to know what control we do have over our data – and thank you once again for alerting us all to this potential issue.

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  7. MF

    “Zoopla has appointed Gareth Helm to the newly created role of chief marketing officer.”   Marketing aimed at agents, or the public?  I wonder which has the highest priority at Zoopla Towers these days…

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    1. PeeBee

      MF – the easiest way to answer that thorny question is to quote a press release from almost six years ago announcing the arrival of Mr Lawrence Hall to the Z camp:

      “Z.co.uk, which provides free value estimates on all 27 million UK homes as well as over 15 million sold price records and lists hundreds of thousands of properties for sale and rent across the UK…”

      From the looks of it – the incidental mention that they stick a few properties on their information site – we were ALWAYS the mud on the shoes, matey!

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  8. PeeBee

    Anyways… I’m a Meerkat kinda guy so mateyboy’s past history doesn’t register on my radar!

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