People-centric & culturally rooted: Vikas Nair on the future of real estate marketing

Real estate marketing is no longer just a print ad showing the square footage or the convenient location. People are engaging with virtual real estate marketing. According to the National Association of Realtors, properties with video marketing receive 403% more inquiries, compared to those without. 

This change is reshaping the way homes are sold, especially in markets like Bengaluru. With property prices up 12% in 2024 and areas like Whitefield and Electronic City seeing fierce competition, standing out has become harder. 

Century Real Estate is one of the companies adapting to this shift. It has doubled its revenue year-on-year for five years and has increased its marketing investment for FY26. Vikas Nair, VP & Head of Marketing & Communications, says the brand is focusing on ‘insight-driven storytelling’. This involves using immersive tech and cultural context to connect with buyers who want to ‘invest in a lifestyle’ 

In this conversation, Nair talks about how Century’s approach has evolved from moving away from heavy discount-led campaigns to experimentation with virtual experiences. The brand is aiming to offer a look at what it takes to market homes in an increasingly competitive market. 

Edited excerpts:

Century has increased its marketing investment this year. What’s driving this move? What are your main focus areas, and could you give us an idea of the overall budget and how it's being split across channels?

We’ve been doubling our topline year-on-year for the last five years, powered by strong customer demand and a robust, growing pipeline of projects across categories. As we expand our footprint across Bengaluru, this momentum is being driven by sharp, insight-led marketing.

While we continue to focus on project-level marketing and demand generation, FY26 will see a significant investment in strengthening our corporate brand. The goal: to build top-of-mind awareness (TOMA) in our category, especially as we enter new segments and markets. Our current year’s marketing budget has been strategically optimised to meet these objectives.

We have more than doubled our marketing budget in FY26. A majority of this will be directed towards media spends across digital and ATL channels, leveraging ATL for compelling brand storytelling and digital for performance-driven campaigns. In addition to media, we will also invest meaningfully in high-quality content creation, strategic brand collaborations, and marquee sponsorships, especially in the sports arena.

With buyers increasingly digital-first, what does your current media mix look like? Which platforms are delivering the most value?

Our media mix is rooted in a balanced, omnichannel approach that reflects the evolving consumer journey, from online discovery to on-ground validation. We ensure presence across digital, traditional, and experiential touchpoints, with an emphasis on being present where today’s buyers seek information, comparison, and reassurance. The goal is to create a seamless brand experience, whether it begins with a search engine, a social feed, or a billboard.

While digital drives discovery, traditional media still plays a powerful role in brand trust and recall, especially in high-investment categories like real estate. OOH and print drive online searches, spikes in site visits and web traffic, making our media mix a truly integrated one.

The festive quarter sees high-intent buying. What are the proven messaging and campaign tactics that work during this window, and how do you cut through the clutter while staying true to your brand?

We operate in a high-involvement category with long buying cycles, where decisions take time and cannot be accelerated meaningfully through short-term festive offers. Recognising this, we have consciously stayed away from announcing discount-led campaigns.

Instead, our strategy focuses on building a strong funnel of qualified prospects and driving sustained engagement through campaigns that highlight long-term lifestyle value, strategic location advantages, product benefits, and brand trust, elements that truly influence decision-making in real estate.

Creative consistency, cultural relevance, and thoughtful timing are key to breaking through the clutter. We leverage festive windows not to push urgency with discounts, but to convert from a pool of highly engaged prospects, using limited-period payment plans, select waivers, and inventory-specific benefits, informed by insights gathered over the engagement cycle.

Influencers are now a real part of the real estate marketing ecosystem. What role do they play in your campaigns today? What kind of content or creator partnerships have actually driven results?

Influencers have become an important bridge between brand messaging and consumer trust. While looking at influencer collabs we prioritise creators with a strong personal brand in finance, home, or lifestyle, who can contextualise Century’s projects in a relatable way. These partnerships help drive both brand recall and qualified inquiries, particularly among younger audiences.

Millennials and Gen Z are entering the market with new expectations. How is that influencing tone, visual language, or the kinds of experiences real estate marketing needs to deliver today?

Today’s homebuyers are research-driven and design-conscious. They’re not just purchasing a home, they’re investing in a lifestyle. This discerning audience expects brands to be transparent, culturally attuned, and digitally native. In response, we’ve evolved both in terms of our communication style and the customer experience, from adopting cleaner visual aesthetics and a more authentic tone of voice, to creating richer, more immersive brand touchpoints.

To meet the expectations of this digitally savvy generation, we’ve built a suite of immersive experiences: high-quality 3D CGI films, AR/VR walkthroughs, interactive scale models, and phygital displays. These tools enable our customers to vividly explore every facet of a project, be it the home interiors, balcony views, clubhouses, sports courts, or outdoor amenities. By helping them envision life in these spaces, we’re not just informing, we’re inspiring. These experiences foster emotional connection and aspiration, making our brand and projects more relatable, memorable, and desirable.

Luxury real estate ads often look similar to drone shots, green spaces, and tall buildings. How do you think real estate brands can move beyond these usual visuals and connect better with today’s more aware and selective homebuyer?

Real estate brands need to think differently about marketing. Today, most campaigns are built around reach, defaulting to predictable tropes like high-rises, expansive green spaces, and stock images of smiling families. The result? A sea of sameness. Many brands end up looking interchangeable and worse, emotionally disconnected from the audience. I’ve even seen the same stock image used across multiple brands.

To truly stand out, marketers must begin with empathy by understanding their customers’ aspirations, mindsets, and motivations. When you build stories grounded in real insight and cultural relevance, you create campaigns that not only differentiate the project but also foster emotional connection and aspiration.

At Century, our approach has always centred around people, telling stories that are insight-led, visually authentic, and culturally resonant. Whether it's the tone, the imagery, or the narrative, we craft our campaigns to speak to the Bengaluru buyer - someone who values both rootedness and aspiration.

In a market where attention is scarce and buyers are more informed than ever, brands that embed emotional cues through local references, cultural codes, or story-driven formats are far more likely to capture interest and build lasting brand value.

With consumers now expecting transparency and more value upfront, what types of content or formats are becoming essential in real estate marketing?

Today’s homebuyers expect to explore, compare, and evaluate properties in depth on their own terms and across multiple touchpoints. In response, forward-looking brands are embracing more immersive and informative experiences to meet these evolving expectations.

At Century, we’ve integrated advanced digital tools across the customer journey to elevate the project experience. From high-quality 3D CGI films and AR/VR walkthroughs to interactive scale models and phygital experiences, our immersive formats help bring every detail of the project to life.

These experiences not only simplify and demystify the homebuying process but also foster trust, emotional connection, and aspiration, making it easier for buyers to envision their future in our spaces.

Everyone talks about virtual walkthroughs and AI-based targeting, but what tools or tech have actually enhanced your buyer experience or campaign effectiveness?

What’s made a real difference for us is the ability to measure, learn, and adapt across the buyer journey. We actively leverage data analytics to evaluate the performance of each marketing channel, which allows us to continuously fine-tune our media mix and sharpen ROIs.

Equally important are the insights we gather through consumer surveys and on-ground feedback loops, which help us gather information ranging from the type of amenities buyers value, to the tone of messaging that resonates the most. For instance, evolving preferences around community spaces, work-from-home zones, or sustainability features, directly shape our planning and product communication. In essence, it’s this combination of campaign-level performance data and buyer-led insight gathering that enables us to stay responsive, relevant, and experience-focused.

As a marketing leader in a high-stakes category like real estate, what’s one belief or learning that consistently shapes how you build campaigns and connect with today’s evolving homebuyer?

In a high-stakes, high-involvement category like real estate, decisions aren’t made overnight; they’re made over months of exploration, discussion, and doubt. So, while aesthetics and emotion can capture attention, it’s insight-driven storytelling and relevance that sustain it.

Every campaign we build starts with a deep understanding of our homebuyer, their aspirations, anxieties, cultural context, and life stage. Whether it's the tone of voice, the visual language, or the media strategy, everything is crafted to feel personal, rooted, and real. Buyers today aren’t just looking for a home; they’re seeking identity, lifestyle, and long-term value, and if your brand can reflect that understanding authentically, you don’t just win attention, you earn trust.