ZPG Group Mid-Year Report - June 2020
30th June 2020
ZPG’s companies include some of the UK’s most well recognised, trusted and innovative digital brands. These brands, including Zoopla, Uswitch, Money, PrimeLocation and SmartNewHomes, aim to empower consumers to make smarter property and household decisions.
Alongside these household names, ZPG is also one of the leading residential property software and data providers with a range of industry-leading products including Hometrack, Alto, Calcasa, and many others.
As the company approaches the second anniversary of its transition to a privately-owned company, ZPG continues to focus on its goal of providing significant value and an ever improving experience to customers and consumers. This approach, led by its talented and ambitious management team, is in turn supported by Silver Lake and Red Ventures, each of which provides unique expertise in product, technology and marketing. This, combined with ZPG’s ability to think long-term, enables the company to make investments and other decisions that might not be possible in a public market context.
Key updates for the two divisions of ZPG (Property and Comparison) over the first six months of the fiscal year ending September 2020 are outlined below.
Property
The last six months saw Zoopla, ZPG’s property arm, continue to focus on its purpose of re-imagining intelligent home decisions for all.
An exciting new approach to Marketing
Following a series of key hires, December saw the launch of a major national marketing campaign featuring Zoopla’s new brand positioning “We know what a home is really worth”. The campaign, the first devised by the award-winning Lucky Generals, targeted first-time buyers and renters, representing the largest media spend in the company’s history.
Utilising TV, VOD, social media, out of home amongst other channels, over half the “in-market” UK population (52%) saw the campaign. This drove a 14% uplift in sessions on Zoopla across the peak period.
Zoopla also radically reshaped its approach to CRM, directly targeting consumers actively looking to move home, helping to drive increased value for agents. 200,000 people participated in the company’s first ‘Zooploma’, an expert guide for first-time buyers, guiding them with support and advice on getting on the property ladder, as well as recommending suitable properties.
Market leading Research & Insights
Zoopla Research & Insights team, led by industry veteran Richard Donnell, has cemented the company’s position as the UK’s leading authority on residential property. The team, recently strengthened by the appointment of Gráinne Gilmore as Head of Research delivers an ongoing series of reports, notably Zoopla’s monthly Cities Index and its quarterly Rental Market Report to home hunters, customers, prospects, public policy stakeholders and the wider property industry. These reports, alongside Zoopla’s market-leading commentary, are considered the gold-standard in property research and analysis.
Product & Innovation
Delivering first class Product & Innovation is key to Zoopla’s goal of reimagining the home buying process and providing an even better experience for agents. The company has continued to invest in industry-leading talent with recent hires including Jo Wickremasinghe from Babylon Health as Product Director, Dan Martins as Director of Product Management from Azimo and Tony Collins as Director of Product Design who joins the company from Autotrader UK.
Zoopla has continued to innovate, launching new versions of the iOS and Android consumer apps and increasing its page speeds by 35% with the removal of non-property related adverts. The company also announced a series of updates for its Alto and Jupix services, helping agents to take advantage of leads quickly and win more customers.
Agents and new home developers partnering with Zoopla for the long-term
Zoopla’s ambition is to build long-term, mutually successful relationships with its partners. Over 1,100 branches joined Zoopla during this period, recognising our unique ability to drive value and our commitment to helping them grow their business.
Alongside agents a key focus for Zoopla has been on building its relationships with new homes developers. The period saw a string of new developers joining Zoopla including Gleeson.
Unrivalled property expertise from Hometrack
Hometrack cemented its position as UK’s leading provider of valuation and risk products to the property industry. 17 of the top 20 mortgage lenders and 19 of the 20 largest housing associations in the UK use Hometrack and their services which underpin a third of all UK property transactions. New wins and renewals during this period include HSBC, Yorkshire Building Society and Legal & General. Hometrack also enhanced its valuation services by adding buy-to-let and forced sale valuation models for mortgage origination and monitoring.
Making a difference
In January it was announced that Zoopla employees raised over £66,000 for charity during 2019, benefitting. over 40 charitable organisations.
In February Zoopla’s first ever apprenticeship in Software Engineering was launched, partnering with Tech She Can Charter to recruit ten software engineer apprentices. 70% of the hired apprentices are female.
Comparison
New TV creative
January saw the launch of a new creative TV advertising campaign by Uswitch alongside a rebranded website, fresh logo and a new tone of voice. The advert more closely aligns the brand with its values by dramatising how Uswitch helps customers get more of what matters to them with the time and money they save switching energy, broadband and mobiles.
Innovating in the telecoms industry
Successful campaigning led to the introduction of new rules forcing telecoms providers to issue both end-of-contract notifications and annual out-of-contract reminders, putting the power back into consumers’ hands to move off poor value packages. February also saw the launch of the industry’s first cross-provider, property-specific broadband speeds tool on Uswitch. The tool shows exactly what services are available to consumers with accurate broadband speed data that is specific to individual properties rather than a national average.
Expert content on the issues that matter
Money.co.uk continues to command a strong presence in the personal finance space through its broad coverage of financial products and services. Its authoritative content has provided a valuable source of information during the challenging economic situation, with expert guides and news articles helping consumers decipher a wide range of topics.
- Ends -
For further information, please contact PR Team on pr@zoopla.co.uk or +44 (0)20 3873 8770.
About Zoopla
Hello. We're Zoopla. A property website and app.
We know you're not just looking for a place to live. You're looking for a home.
Yeah, we've got over a million properties for you to browse.
Tools that let you filter them in all kinds of clever ways.
And reliable house price estimates, so you can be sure you aren't paying over the odds.
But we know you're looking for more than that.
Because that first flat won't just be a 'great investment opportunity'.
It'll be the feeling of starting out on your own.
That extra bedroom won't just mean another £20K on the re-sale price, it'll mean having your sister over to stay.
And that bungalow won't just be a way to release some equity, it will be a chance to spend more time with the grandkids.
We know that searching for a home is about more than just checking its price, location and features (important as all those things are).
What really matters is how it makes you feel.
We know what a home is really worth.
So let us help you find yours.
Zoopla is part of Zoopla Limited which was founded in 2007.
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