Real estate marketing is evolving to adapt to a changing marketplace in which creative online content can be used to connect with purchasers and help curate and close property deals. Long before a project breaks ground, real estate marketers are retained by developers to optimize the project to appeal to prospective buyers, who can then be engaged through things like podcasts, social media, testimonials, immersive digital content and experiential offerings. Gone are the days when a sponsored spread in a newspaper would be enough to help a project achieve lift-off.

Now, realtors are becoming influencers, using technology to drive public interest and target the right audiences. The goal is to achieve careful product design and set a project apart, luring buyers with compelling content that tells a story, offers transparency and enables people to explore a new home years before it’s built. “Whether it’s on their phones or tablets or a touchscreen at a sales centre, they’re able to really walk through it,” said Dan Hashemi, CEO of LNG Studios, which specializes in 3D renderings, animations and virtual experiences in real estate.

“Whether it’s an amenity space or the unit they want to purchase, they can walk through and really see the space in full realism to understand what are the finishes, what are the layouts, what is everything going to feel like and look like.” It’s only the beginning, said Hashemi, since the true potential of virtual and augmented reality .