OnTheMarket TV campaign promotes controversial 'New &...

OnTheMarket today launches a new TV advertising campaign which aims to highlight its 'New & Exclusive' marketing feature.

Agents listing with the portal can choose to advertise properties 24 hours or more before putting them on Rightmove or Zoopla.

These listings are headed with a ‘New & Exclusive’ banner and the portal says that from January 2016 to March 2018, between 2,500 and 10,000 properties were listed this way each month.

Last week, the portal had a complaint about a previous television campaign upheld by the Advertising Standards Authority.

The watchdog ruled that OnTheMarket is no longer allowed to show the advert, as the claim 'agents have moved to OnTheMarket.com from other sites and many are advertising their new properties exclusively with us first, 24 hours or more ahead of other portals' was misleading.

The new campaign focuses on a young family who have missed out on 'yet another perfect house', but discover that OnTheMarket has properties that have been listed before they appear on competing portals Rightmove and Zoopla.

Put together by Half-full Creative, the campaign comprises a series of 10, 30, 40 and 60-second TV commercials.

OnTheMarket says its aim is to demonstrate the value of genuinely active property hunters setting up an alert with the portal.

The advert will air from today and will feature during tonight's episode of Emmerdale on ITV. It will then be aired 3,000 times in the remainder of September and will reach 32 million adults, who will see it over five times each on average.

"It’s very exciting to be launching our new TV campaign, which has been very positively received in market research with both active property-seekers and member agents," says Ian Springett, OnTheMarket's chief executive.

"It puts the portal’s ‘New & Exclusive’ properties at the heart of our advertising in a compelling and engaging manner."

"Our message to consumers is obvious. Every month, thousands of new properties appear at OnTheMarket.com 24 hours or more before they’re on Rightmove or Zoopla," adds Springett.

"We want to ensure that anyone searching for their next home doesn’t miss out and sets-up a property alert with us."

"We believe we have created a memorable, intrusive and fresh campaign to appeal to the broad audience and give property-seekers a compelling reason to search at OnTheMarket.com and engage with the portal," he says.

You can view a version of the advert - which features an altered version of Chaz and Dave's 'Down to Margate' - below.