PROPERTY developers, resort owners and agents selling expensive properties throughout Asia, are adding cutting-edge, digital media to their arsenal in the battle for buyer attention.

Just as a picture was once worth a thousand words, they now believe that digital �fly through voyages� and 360-degree camera trips around their properties will be more convincing than static, albeit luscious, colour photography.

The Puravarna luxury villa development overlooking Rawai Bay, launched a breathtaking campaign even before the development was breaking ground.

They bombarded their target audience of high net-worth retirees and holiday-homers around Asia, with a barrage of lavish marketing material, including the more conventional printed brochures and plans in a boxed �by invitation� set.

The brochures came with a DVD featuring a computer generated �voyage� through the development.

All the latest tricks were used to create a feeling of �the real thing�.

Clients came away from the �trip� feeling they had actually been there, luxuriating in the jacuzzi, sipping Crystale on their personal lake-side terrace with their own private plunge pool, or dining on gourmet food, served by attentive waiters.

It�s certainly a seductive way of stimulating the imagination, but most importantly, it sells.

The Charn Issara Group is building the next phase of the Sri Panwa vacation villa development at Cape Panwa, on the south east coast of Phuket.

Their marketing also features a 3-D still-photograph-based CD, as well as a virtual �voyage� through the development.

The voyage begins with a brief geography lesson on where the development is, which is always important when selling to customers from Hong Kong, Singapore, China and beyond, and the prospective buyer is then treated to a virtual trip around and through the various types of pool villas in the development.

The quality of these fly-through DVD�s depends largely upon how far the development has progressed, and the visuals the client can provide.

At Sri Panwa, the villas were pretty much completed when the DVD was made, so the dream world featured a mix of both still and moving pictures of the finished development, mixed with shots of models and fully computer-generated images.

It�s an interesting fusion which switches your mind between actual reality and yet-to-be-created reality with seamless efficiency.

You have to think hard to figure out whether what you are watching is real, or just virtual.
Bangkok-based Orbit Design Studios have produced a number of virtual presentations for developments around Asia, including for Raimon Land�s apartments on the headland overlooking Kata Beach.

Director, Nick Rahr, says the quality of what can be produced is determined, by the visuals the client can supply, by the team�s creativity, and by the budget.

Most DVD�s are less than five minutes long, and production costs for the virtual DVDs start around $US5000 per minute.

Orbit also found that once they started producing sketches and storyboards for the virtual presentation of a development, the client�s architects and interior designers started making changes and embellishments to match the marketing.

This means the computer gurus are taking over the traditional roles played by architects and interior designers.

A modern-day case of life imitating art.

The increasing penetration of DVD players and broadband internet access, means this form of communicating is all the more readily consumed by the target audience.

But the proof of the marketing pudding is, of course, in the sales figures.

Each of the developers we spoke to, were convinced that using the digital presentations would boost their sales figures.

But what�s next?

Perhaps the next generation of marketing will feature gaming engines and 3-D goggles to give the viewer increasing levels of personal control.

Not only will they see the villa�s jacuzzi, they will have the option of jumping in, ordering an iced drink and possibly even the perfect companion with whom to enjoy the experience.

From the property buyer�s viewpoint, the warning �caveat emptor� (let the buyer beware)
is now even more applicable than ever.

Beauty and truth are not necessarily the same thing, especially in the worlds of virtual reality and marketing strategies.