Special Feature

PLB Media expands capabilities to serve property developers

October 13, 2023 5:30 PM SGT

Melvin Lim (centre), co-founder and CEO of PropertyLimBrothers, with Marc Chan, director of sales and VP of operations, PropertyLimBrothers, and Grayce Tan, senior marketing manager, PropertyLimBrothers (Picture: Samuel Isaac Chua/The Edge Singapore)

Prison officers turned realtors 16 years ago, Melvin Lim and Adrian Lim (unrelated despite having the same surname) started PropertyLimBrothers Media in 2018 after 11 years in the real estate business, and subsequently started PLB Realty last year. The two decided to start their own business as they questioned the way properties were marketed in the industry — why has it always been done the same traditional and lacklustre way?

The duo were the ones who pioneered video home tours with a presenter in Singapore. Melvin himself has been the main presenter in 2,069 videos produced by PLB Media in the past six years. Melvin and Adrian then went independent and started their own venture PropertyLimBrothers, which includes their real estate agency arm PLB Realty and creative arm PLB Media.

Melvin explains that PLB Media was launched in 2018 and started off as a production house to solve a problem in the market – why homes are marketed so hastily.

“Homes are one of the biggest assets people own in their lifetime. The core purpose of PLB Media and the reason we invest extensive efforts to curate such a video is to showcase a home’s maximum potential through innovative video home tours. We use tech and research to stay on top of trends and with our 3D Architectural Visualisation Technology, create homes digitally. With 3D and Visual Effects, we build spaces that may not exist. We are selling a dream that is possible to achieve through our 3D visualisation tech,” says Melvin, who is the co-founder and CEO of PropertyLimBrothers.

Grayce Tan, senior marketing manager of PropertyLimBrothers, adds: “The point [of producing the videos] is to sell a home through storyboarding and scripting. We provide solutions to any objections in the home tour video, such as price point, tenure, facing, and more. We use the videos to qualify buyers, and to attract buyers who are genuinely interested.”

Serving a new market

Thousands of videos from PropertyLimBrothers have been published online, successfully marketing and selling properties all across Singapore. After PropertyLimBrothers established its name within the consumer market and expanded its media team, developers started to notice their effectiveness and showed high interest.

Today as a full-fledged creative agency that focuses on real estate, PLB Media has grown from just a small team of videographers and video editors, to now a team of more than 60 people, enhancing their capabilities in data analysis, 3D architectural visualisation and motion graphics.

At PropertyLimBrothers’ Landed Convention in May, Marc Chan, director of sales and VP of operations at PropertyLimBrothers, explained that there has been an enhancement in partnership. With developers now approaching PLB Media to boost their marketing efforts, the creative house now sees more visibility and capability to serve the larger B2B market moving forward.

“In the past, our focus was to support our inhouse realtors and direct home sellers. But now with our creative agency we have more advanced resources to better serve our developer partners too,” says Marc.

The paid event attracted over 375 attendees, with 18 landed developers and partners presenting more than 100 landed listings. It created an awareness, as well as a paradigm shift, for PLB Media to show that its capabilities are not limited to just serving home sellers, but are expandable to even the developers.

Adding on, Grayce explains that developers typically market their properties in a traditional manner – building show flats and engaging joint marketing agents. While this has been effective for many years, Grayce posits that more can be done in project marketing.

Grayce also shares that developers need not engage PLB Realty’s realtors to sell the property to engage PLB Media for their marketing needs. The marketing materials created are available for the developer to disseminate to their joint marketing agencies for the new launch project.

Laser-focused

The way Grayce sees it, PLB Media is not just any creative agency. Thanks to the team’s experienced background in the real estate industry, PLB Media has a pure focus on the real estate sector. Its capabilities are specifically tailored to create content that features real estate.

“All of the technology that we have invested, as well as our expertise, will be able to best position real estate products. All these efforts were born out of the need to cater especially to the real estate market,” explains Grayce, adding that the in-house team is well-versed in real estate terms and how to best feature all sorts of properties.

Marc says: “We are not just any media agency. We also have strong technology and research teams. That way, when we craft out our content, we have the resources to do a deep-dive analysis and research to better explain to our audience.”

While PLB Media focuses on creating content to best position a property to be sold, Melvin emphasises that the content has to be informative to the audience. “We are not just creating content for the sake of it. We want to make sure that we are also educating the market and sharing real estate knowledge,” says Melvin.

Apart from its capabilities and focus on the real estate sector, having founders like Melvin and Adrian, who are experts in the real estate sector, sets the creative agency apart from others out there.

While PLB Media curates content for its clients, it too has several social media platforms, with over 160,000 unique property enthusiasts following their platforms. “We only post real estate content on our social media platforms, so we have curated an audience and community that is passionate about it to join us on our socials,” says Grayce.

Moving forward

On the outlook, PLB Media will continue to focus on expanding its capabilities and its team to cater to the ever-evolving creative landscape. Marc shares that the company has pivoted in 2023 to provide different formats of content including webinars and live debates, as he acknowledges that there is an inherent individual difference in the way people consume their content.

Technology is also important for PLB Media. Marc shares that 2024 will be the year when PLB Media will launch a few tech initiatives. “Our efforts to invest in technology is a testament to how we genuinely ‘put our money where our mouth is’,” says Marc.

Meanwhile, there are plans for PLB Media to expand into more markets. Currently, it is present in both Singapore and Malaysia. Next year, PLB Media will spread its wings to enter markets such as the Philippines, Thailand and Indonesia.

While PLB Media maintains its ambitions to expand within the region, Grayce says: “Entering a new country is not easy. We have to do a lot of market study to understand the different consumer behaviours there. While I believe that this is a successful business here, it’s not just plug and play. We have to recognise that it’s different selling to different cultures and markets.”

Marc adds: “Regardless, the core principles and aspirations still remain the same across different countries – sellers will always look out for someone who can best market and sell the property, while buyers will always want someone who can provide good advice and provide consultation backed by research and data.”

For more information,

Contact PLB Media | 62326719

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