NOVII
Reimagining property data to help people connect with the places they live—or might want to.
Overview:Novii is a partner of realestate.com.au (REA), offering a paid platform service for real estate agents. Through Novii, agents can create an online profile that showcases their transaction history across buying, selling, leasing, and property management. As a partner of REA, Novii has access to rich, detailed property and suburb data—including median price trends, local amenities, and suburb-specific insights—spanning much of Australia. Despite its depth, this data remains largely untapped in the context of online customer servicing.
Task:
- Novii is a smaller partner of REA, seeking to expand its influence and service offerings.
- Novii seeks to explore new opportunities to engage its core customer—real estate agents—while also identifying potential new audiences that could expand its service offerings. The primary goal is to generate new revenue streams while delivering additional value propositions.
Business benefit: New revenue streams & expanded service offerings to newly identified audiences.
Customer benefit: Equip real estate agents with enhanced resources and insights to support their core goals.
Problem:Novii’s current offering is outdated and disconnected from the broader services REA provides. Novii aims to redefine its role in this business relationship, demonstrating that both its leadership and team are committed to innovating and improving methods to harness opportunities data and partner opportunities in the real estate market for both B2B and B2C customers.
Website
Sector:
Real Estate
Role: Strategy, Competitor & Comparative Analysis, Synthesis, Ideation & Workshopping, Low & Hi-fidelity Wireframing, Prototyping, Concept Testing
Time: 6 Weeks
Problem Statement
Attract the right attention to create a new ownable space for agents and advertisers to invest in
Attract the right attention to create a new ownable space for agents and advertisers to invest in
Research: Comp Analysis
For our competitive exploration, we looked at products and services across real estate, music, culture, and beyond that creatively leveraged data. This broadened our thinking and revealed new market opportunities, particularly for utilizing the property and suburb data we already had. Here are key examples that inspired us, showcasing innovative uses of data.
A New Audience: Who?
Our core users were real estate agents—focused less on immediate sales and more on building long-term relationships. To grow, we shifted focus to their customers: the local communities buying, selling, and renting. Tapping into existing data, we identified key acquisition points to engage this broader audience for Novii.
Developing New Value Propositions
Building on our discovery and shared alignment around current and emerging data opportunities, we began mapping out potential value for both existing customers and new audiences. Our focus shifted toward identifying core value propositions tied to shaping suburb and community perception through a more cultural and hyper-local lens.HMW’s: Divide & Conquer
Considering Novii’s core customer base and the goal to attract a new audience, we divided our ideation into two distinct pathways to ensure we met the unique needs of each group.Focus: Customers
Travellers seek genuine connection and a sense of community wherever they go—but often struggle to find it, as their time is consumed by planning and logistics.
HMW #2 Focus: New Audience
Travellers often discover hidden gems around the world—but they’re more inclined to protect these spots than share them widely.
Ideation: Meaningful Pathways
Our ideation centered on the core needs of each user group, with personas guiding the optimisation of features and pathways to drive engagement and inspiration. Each solution was then mapped back to its respective user to ensure it aligned with our reframed brief—delivering an elevated and meaningful experience for McGrath’s audiences.
Phase Rollout
To uncover more bespoke insights into suburbs and their local cultures—and to attract relevant partnerships—we proposed a phased rollout. This approach would allow data to be gathered incrementally, helping to build a culturally rich suburb profiler grounded in real, locally-driven perspectives and data.
National
Survey
Mobilise a national survey via REA that captures all things cultural about that suburb and community
But why?
This approach offers a low-cost way to generate more bespoke data that can complement existing suburb and property insights. It's not only sustainable over the long term, but also benefits from high-frequency capture thanks to REA’s substantial daily traffic. While the method of deployment—whether incremental or all at once—was still under consideration, it presented a clear pathway to demonstrate the core value this data could offer to both new audiences and potential partners.
Cultural
Wrap
From the initial survey run, launch a ‘Cultural Canvas’ that replays the key themes and insights about Australia a year later.
But why?
This taps into Australians' natural curiosity about themselves and their communities. People love uncovering new truths—especially when it reflects something unique about where they live. By delivering those hyper-local insights, this content opportunity has the potential to excite and engage audiences while subtly building brand awareness for both Novii and REA. As a seasonal event, it would not only test market interest but also create a shareable moment that positions both brands at the center of the conversation.
Core Product
Launch
Launch a new platform offering in-depth suburb profiling from across Australia—blending practical insights with playful, culturally rich perspectives.
But why?
This platform would offer Novii’s new audience a way to explore insights about places they may want to live or visit across Australia, while also enhancing the value provided to core customers (agents) by delivering a new tool for gathering market intelligence. Additionally, it opens up new revenue opportunities through partnerships with real estate agencies, local businesses, councils, and tourism services.
Concept Testing:
A Divided Path
We tested the concept with a broad user base—from young renters to seasoned investors—and found strong demand for pragmatic, local insights. Testers responded positively, seeing clear value and potential for regular use.
Challenges: Format Strategy & Data Balance
Testing uncovered key challenges around executing the product rollout—particularly regarding platform availability, data quality, and how effectively different components could be mobilised.
Final Recommendation
Novii received our recommendation with enthusiasm and were eager to present it to REA as a potential future product rollout. REA, in turn, recognised the value of the proposition and expressed excitement about the opportunities it could unlock.