When Amitabh Bachchan was announced as a brand ambassador for The House of Abhinandan Lodha (HoABL), Pawan Sarda, Chief Growth Officer for the real estate brand, was especially elated with the actor purchasing the very first land parcel in a 7-star mixed-use development of HoABL to build a house near the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Temple in Ayodhya.

“Land is perhaps the oldest commodity there is. From the beginning, people have been using land to generate wealth, to hand down to family, and to grow a community. Where HoABL differs is in that we don’t just sell a piece of land; we sell branded land,” said Pawan Sarda.

“What this means is that we sell by the square foot, rather than by acres or any other measurements; we take care of all paperwork and other hassles; and thirdly, we never just sell you a piece of land, we develop it. This means all our projects will be developed by us, with a sense of community, so you’ll be assured of good facilities, whether it’s a clubhouse or other amenities, and that you’ll be living next to like-minded people,” says Sarda.

And who is buying into these dreams? “We’re seeing a lot of our consumers coming in from abroad, especially NRIs. Then we’re seeing a lot of people who want to buy homes in other cities, whether they’re from Chandigarh looking for something in Goa, or someone in Mumbai looking for something in Ayodhya,” he says.

“We’re in the business of selling dreams. But that dream may not be visible today. That’s where we leverage the power of technology to showcase what we’re offering, and what your dream is going to look like in the year or two it will take to complete,” says Sarda, pointing out that if you’re in New York, you’re not going to be coming to Mumbai to check out properties. “So, our technology platforms take care of that. That’s another reason we’ve paid so much attention to our app, which is available on both Apple and Android app stores.”

A typical marketing campaign for HoABL rolls out much as it did with the recent Sarayu project in Ayodhya. “Print is very big for real estate players, and we’re no different. So naturally we’ll have big print ads to announce new projects on a large scale. After that, it’s digital, wherein we can leverage performance marketing to identify and target specific audiences whom we think will be amenable to our offerings, which have been announced. So, for Ayodhya, a large part of the enquiries, wherein the initial booking amounts were paid and plots selected, were all taken care of by the app; the customers didn’t even engage directly with us, because of how seamless we’ve made our processes,” shared Sarda, adding that HoABL will also soon be advertising on a TV near you.