Rightmove in the clear over amazing claim made in adv...

Rightmove has been given the green light to continue using the claim that “every second someone contacts an estate agent about a home on Rightmove.”

The endorsement comes from the Advertising Standards Authority which received three complaints about posters seen on the London Undergound earlier this year.

The first poster, seen on May 26, included the text: “Every second someone in the world gets married and every second someone contacts an estate agent about a home on Rightmove”.

The second poster, seen on June 17, included the text: “Every second a bee flaps its wings 230 times and every second someone contacts an estate agent about a home on Rightmove”.

Three complainants challenged whether the claim “every second someone contacts an estate agent about a home on Rightmove” was misleading and could be substantiated.

The ASA suggests the three complaints came from individual members of the public.

Rightmove defended the claim to the authority by saying in its 2018 annual report it referenced the total number of leads that were sent to their estate agents in that year.

The leads consisted of email and phone enquiries made either electronically via the Rightmove website or apps, or using one of the trackable phone numbers provided on each Rightmove property listing.

The portal reiterated the claim it has made often in its publicity - that it 42m leads in a year which amounted to 1.3 enquiries per second, as there were 31.5m seconds in a year.

A statement from the ASA reads: “The ASA considered that consumers would understand the claim ‘every second someone contacts an estate agent about a home on Rightmove’ to mean that the number of times estate agents were contacted about homes listed on Rightmove was equivalent to once every second.”

It continued: “Ads (a) and (b) featured the claim alongside similar claims such as ‘every second someone in the world gets married’ and we considered that consumers would interpret them to be objective claims. We understood that the figure was based on the total number of enquiries estate agents received about Rightmove’s property listings in 2018. That equated to 1.3 enquiries every second over a year. We considered those figures were sufficiently robust as the basis for the advertising claim.

”We therefore concluded that the claim in ads (a) and (b) had been substantiated and was not misleading.”

No further action has been deemed necessary - so perhaps expect to see this claim again on a poster soon.

Simon Bradbury
13 November 2019 08:55 AM

Hi Charlie,
An interesting point. On the other hand if a prospective buyer/seller/landlord/tenant sends an enquiry and it is not dealt with at all, it can hardly be seen as a positive experience for that potential customer. It can only negatively influence their view of that agent thereby reducing the chances of that potential customer using that agent in the future...and think about how they might share that experience with their social group. In my view, the real skill is to work out HOW to respond appropriately to any lead and certainly not to just ignore them.