CREA

The Canadian Real Estate Association had traditionally touted all the reasons to use Realtors, but it wasn’t really working. In fact, at the time of this campaign more Canadians than ever before were considering selling their home without a Realtor.

Enter loss aversion theory. The behaviour economic principle that people value a loss more than the same-sized gain; they value losing five bucks more than gaining five bucks. We realized that we could use this theory to change the way people thought about Realtors. The Nobel Prize that Daniel Kahneman won for loss aversion (prospect) theory helped get Realtors onboard.

We created a campaign that for the first time showed what could happen if you didn’t use a Realtor, and it was so successful it ran for four years after I left the shop. I actually think they’re pretty amusing and I love that they committed so hard to the bit.