Real estate is the world’s largest asset class, estimated to be worth $280 trillion. Yet it invests less than 1% of its revenues into technology or innovation, lagging significantly behind other large industries. By 2019, after years of avoidance and neglect, investment in real estate technology began to accelerate. Commercial real estate (CRE) firms were scrambling to catch up and the world’s largest players were all competing to be the leader in the burgeoning “PropTech” market, estimated to reach $12.11 billion by 2025.
It was for these reasons Laura and I were tempted to join JLL, a Fortune 200 company with 200+ years of real estate experience and the second largest commercial real estate firm in the world with more than $16.5 billion in annual revenue. Despite counting the world’s largest companies as its customers, JLL lacked credibility and market share in the emerging PropTech market despite acquiring a string of technology companies over the prior several years.
We grew brand awareness by 300% for JLL Technologies in the first half of 2021
By aligning the executive team on our objectives, we got the greenlight to establish JLL Technologies as a sub-brand with a unique but complementary set of brand guidelines and a single digital presence (JLLT.com) to drive growth.
We successfully launched two new SaaS products generating more than $1M in marketing-sourced pipeline within the first month.
The following year, we were able to leverage the same infrastructure to quickly ship a thought leadership microsite (hybridworks.jll.com), a cross-functional initiative with JLL, to lead and influence the emerging hybrid workplace market opportunity.
The new website & digital channels captured tens of thousands of leads within nine months of launching website.
JLL’s new position as a market leader in real estate technology and PropTech has enabled the company to weather the pandemic storm. In a recent earnings call, “technology” is mentioned 15 times, and JLL’s stock price has nearly doubled since JLL Technologies was announced in September 2019.