Distribution beats advertising when vacancy bleeds

Tech is rewriting commercial real estate exponentially. Most coverage is news - who raised what, who bought what. This newsletter covers physics. Structural forces. Patterns before they’re obvious. Atoms and bits. Subscribe for updates →

the physics

“Waiting for inbound” is fundamentally wrong. First, “waiting” means it’s passive - reaction instead of action. This is generally wrong in every condition, as it’s giving initiative to “them” (market, competitors, clients). But under tough market conditions? Unacceptable, I think.

The instinct is to advertise harder. More ads, more events, more media coverage. But here’s the thing: advertising is still a form of waiting. You put your offer in front of people and hope they respond. You’re louder, but still passive.

I like semantic differences - in my opinion they have huge impact on things. Advertising is about showing your offer in front of potential clients. What we need is Distribution. A way more active, containing a wider sense of transmission from seller to buyer. A is a billboard. D is a phone call with a name attached.

Why going this way? Think of office real estate. Yesterday, spaces competed with other spaces. Building vs building. Today the competitive landscape is way more complicated. Just to say, building vs Microsoft Teams. It’s no longer about advertising, but a more offensive stance - using various tools, attacking a wider vector of potential competitors.

the signal

We see this from the front seat. Our marketplace provides advertising tools for landlords who want to attract online-first tenants. It’s a well-performing channel with excellent ROI, but it may not fill the needs in total. If you sit on 15,000 sqm of vacant space, you can’t rely on only one online channel or broker initiatives. You must chase clients actively - think distribution, not marketing.

One of our clients had high vacancy in a not-so-hot location. They’d been fighting for a year trying different marketing strategies: online ads, PR activities, on-site events for brokers, even billboards around the city. Nothing moved. They spent money and WAITED for results. With the new year came the “enough moment” and a new pro-active strategy - “tell us who to call” instead of “spend more on Google ads.” They became one of the first clients of our new tenant prospecting tool, which puts control (and responsibility) in landlords’ hands. No more waiting.

the translation

Office deals used to come through the door. They don’t anymore. This isn’t fixable with better ads or smarter marketing. The game itself changed. Order-taking won’t work when nobody’s ordering.

Landlords need to become hunters. Know your prospects. Call them. Own the conversation. It’s harder than waiting.

But waiting just means losing slower.