Comments on: Foxtons Does Automated Vodcasts

By: Leo

Leo — Thu, 10 May 2007 12:39:55 +0000

Foxtons have now launched the videos for all US homes listed directly with the company.

More details here:

http://www.foxtons.com/news/

By: Renthusiast.org: March 2007

Renthusiast.org: March 2007 — Fri, 09 Mar 2007 23:10:49 +0000

[...] have been doing some aggressive (and technically impressive) guerrilla marketing lately. However I wonder about their overall strategy, and a lot seems to be [...]

By: Christian Sterner

Christian Sterner — Thu, 08 Mar 2007 22:31:16 +0000

Incredible Agent,

Thanks for the vote of confidence, but Phil is the only voice enabled robot we have, and he is too busy for voice overs. Foxtons nailed it with this one, and in dealing with what is readily available to come up with something podcastable, the description audio is spot on (regardless of how it sounds). Annoying…maybe; but I have to admit that they did the best they could, and succeeded. Hats off to them.

Is there a business model for someone that wants to do voice overs of real estate listings all day long? I think the indisputable answer is “YES!”

By: AJ

AJ — Thu, 08 Mar 2007 17:52:11 +0000

Interesting what this potentially means for the business model around photo-based virtual tours.

By: Leo

Leo — Thu, 08 Mar 2007 09:03:44 +0000

A couple of points on the feedback above…

We (Foxtons) have a flash version on the website (see ‘Audioshow’) for each property; the version in the feeds have to be in quicktime for vodcasts – so it works with iTunes and iPods.

Because of the number of properties we add each week (up to 1,000) it is impossible for us to manually create the audio. We create the mp3 for every property, sales or lettings, and they automatically update if there is a price change or an addition to the description.

We tried many different voices, originally we wanted a male and female with British accents; but the American accent was far easier to understand. If a better voice becomes available we will of course switch.

By: John Schroeder

John Schroeder — Thu, 08 Mar 2007 02:23:59 +0000

I agree with everyone it that the computer generated voice is awful. And I thought the same people’s voice over and over on the local cable channel was mind numbing. There is a definite connection when you can see and hear the actual agent. And you guys thought computers could do everything.
I do hope that someone comes out with a useable format stateside. Though having an exclusive channel-YOUR BLOG to your prospects is nice too.

By: Chris

Chris — Thu, 08 Mar 2007 01:43:01 +0000

Foxtons is know for many techie things, and yet they seem to be losing money instead of making it. Listening to that computer generated voice is just as engaging as calling a credit card customer service and talking back to a machine. Somethings are just better when done by humans.

Oh, and if you’d like your video tour with a British accent, check out the samples at viewrealestate.tv – for mere $499…

By: Incredible Agent

Incredible Agent — Thu, 08 Mar 2007 00:45:27 +0000

I don’t think this would be too hard to do. All you would need is a simple script to pull the images into a flash file and then podcast the descriptive text over it. The technology obviously exists, someone just needs to make it easier for people to do. Maybe the WellcomeMat guys can get on that. They seem to have a good grasp of flash and would probably be able to whip this out in a short amount of time.

The Foxton’s clips were very interesting. It was a good use of existing technologies to get the job done. I don’t like their use of quicktime though.

By: rgvdagreat | rgvdagreat

rgvdagreat | rgvdagreat — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 00:00:00 +0000

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