Corcoran’s Christina Panos on Emotion, Trust & Real Estate Marketing

Up today on the Speed of Culture podcast, we're thrilled to be joined by Christina Panos, the Chief Marketing Officer at the Corcoran Group. Christina has been at the helm of Corcoran's marketing transformation, reshaping real estate advertising with emotionally resonant campaigns and leveraging creative leadership to drive brand growth across the luxury real estate market. Christina, so great to see you.

Thanks for having me, Matt.

Absolutely. You know, real estate is such an interesting industry. It's unlike any other. Just because there's so many, so much nuance to it. It's obviously a very complex industry as well. What are some things about the real estate industry that you've learned over time that maybe some people don't know?

Well, you know, I came into the business as a bit of an outsider. I started my career on the agency side and was lucky enough to be brought to the client side at one point. And so I had really no understanding of the real estate business. I knew who Barbara Corcoran was because I grew up in the New York City area.

And if— And now she's on Shark Tank, so everyone knows her. Everyone knows her.

But you know, if you grew If you grew up in the '80s, it was sort of hard to miss Barbara because the brand was all about her and she was kind of a pioneer in putting herself out there as the face of the brand. And that was really unique at the time. Also, you know, something that I didn't realize about, you know, the business was how, how rare it was to have a female leader because there were at the time very few female-led real estate companies. And frankly, There still are very few. So that was something that, you know, being on the agency side, there was a lot more balance between, you know, I had a lot of female bosses, I had a lot of male bosses, and, you know, coming into an industry that was a lot more, you know, sort of led by men was something that kind of, to begin with, put Corcoran in a different category and sort of set it apart from the way that it sort of expressed itself, you know. What surprised me about the category was really coming from brands that were very sort of steeped in understanding consumer insights and research and understanding who their target was. You know, when I came to the business, it was eye-opening for me to realize how differently the real estate business runs. There is no consumer research, there is no targeting, there is, you know, didn't attract—

Very transactional, right?

Very transactional. Didn't really attract you know, the type of people who had come from the agency side and, and really wanted to delve into who the consumer is. When I asked, when I first got here, uh, you know, what kind, type of research do you have about your buyers and sellers? You know, the answer was, we have nothing. You know, remember the, the relationship between the agent and the consumer is owned by the agent.

It's akin to a franchise model almost.

Yes, it, it is. Yeah. And we also have a franchise business, which is, which is a whole nother story, you know, because those are obviously independently owned. But so the relationship between the agent and the and the client is owned by them. And so they know who they're reaching, they know what demographic these people are. But as the, as the, the company itself doesn't necessarily have all that information. So it was extremely transactional and also just very much focused on most companies were about who our agents are, what our listings are. And I'm sure you've seen 1,000 ads out there of like, I'm the number one agent on the West Side or the number one agent.

The famous, you know, bus station ads are everywhere.

That's basically, you know, and the content of those those ads was very much a bit of like all about me, whether it is I—

Exactly. Yeah. Your picture's always on it. It's always airbrushed.

It was a very sort of egocentric business in terms of the types of marketing and advertising that was out there. So that was a big surprise to me. And of course, my first role here was to change that. And so I saw that as a very big opportunity, but really sort of how very few real estate businesses understood that there is such an opportunity, not in an opportunistic way, but there's just this whole like, you know, emotional aspect of buying and selling that nobody is talking about. And so this idea of understanding what are the emotions that go into real estate was just sort of not talked about and not done. And that was something that— you know, I sort of took on as my project in rebranding Corcoran after Barbara left. But very surprised at the difference in the, in the sort of very transactional nature of, of real estate when I got into it.

So in that regard, what has worked in terms of establishing Corcoran as a brand that people trust and, and a true market leader?

I think tapping into that, you know, emotional aspect of buying and selling real estate has, and really our commitment to want to connect on an emotional level with people. You know, we, so, you know, when I, when I got here, the company was in transition because Barbara had recently left the company. Most people think she is still associated with the company, but you know, she certainly, her halo has, is felt all these years later. But so to me, you know, it was important that we really explore what it is that's at the heart of buying and selling real estate. And that is— Mm-hmm. Connecting with an agent and feeling as though that agent really understands what it is that you are looking for and to find the home that expresses who you are. Hence our tagline, live who you are. Yeah.

And it's the biggest financial decision you're gonna make until you buy your next home.

The biggest financial decision and usually accompanies a major life event. You know, oftentimes it's you're getting married, you're becoming an empty nester, you're having your first, you know, it is a compl— you know, home buying is an extremely emotionally rich territory. And we have tapped into that through our advertising, through our, you know, all of our campaigns, and really through the way that we train agents and how we really sort of, you know, they're amazing at what they do. And we sort of just make them even more aware of the deeper the connection they have with their customer and client, the longer the relationship's going to be. And, you know, We have agents here that helped people buy their first apartment and now they're empty nesters and they're helping their grandchildren buy apartments. So there's so much longevity once you've made that connection. And so that's really our focus here. And I do think it's almost self-fulfilling. You know, we attract agents at Corcoran who feel the same way about the business as we do. We attract affiliates, 'cause we are a franchise business, who also view the real estate business the way that we do. And so, you know, it, it's really nice to kind of all share this philosophy and a philosophy that I think consumers connect with also.

Right. And let's shift gears a little bit to the market itself, 'cause obviously the home buying market has been through a, you know, whipsaw of conditions. You know, we went through the zero interest rate environment and the COVID boom to then obviously interest rates spiking outta unlike we've ever seen in history. And now everyone is trying to figure out what's next in a very uncertain market and world. Where is— what is the state and mindset of the modern homebuyer today? And how do you think that impacts the way that Quaker needs to evolve its brand?

You know, I think that people are very cautious. There is obviously a lot going on. We have an interesting mayoral race going on in New York, which has got people talking. You know, we've got We've got the sort of more national political climate that is, you know—

That's a whole nother podcast, right?

That is uncertain, you know, but people always need to buy homes, you know? And so it hasn't obviously stopped the market, but I think that COVID really changed the way that people look at home buying and really the importance of home became magnified during COVID and especially amongst a younger demographic, you know, wanting to buy a home sooner possibly than they did, you know, 10, 20 years ago. And so there are a lot of younger people, you know, millennials, Gen Z, who are looking at wanting to buy a home, but also wanting to really understand what they're getting into. And they are very hungry for information. They're very hungry for partnership with an agent, interestingly. Yeah. And they actually want to be led by somebody that they trust. And they, they, they, they have a very different attitude about it than, than, you know, sort of a little bit of the older demographic. But, you know, home, home is important, you know, and just sort of this whole work from home climate that sort of came out of COVID has also made people want to look for a place that they can also work from home. And maybe, you know, I just talked to somebody yesterday who's son bought and rented an apartment, 5 different bedrooms, 5 different guys, each working from home in their own bedroom, you know? So, you know, there is a lot of different thoughts that go into the home buying process now than there were maybe, you know, 5, 6 years ago before COVID And it's made it really interesting. And it's also, you know, made it interesting for the agents to kind of expand the way that they talk to people about home.

Mm-hmm.

But you know, there's gonna be ups and downs all the time. I mean, I've been here since 2004, so I've seen the highs, I've seen the lows, and you know, we've always weathered these storms because we kind of just like put our head down and focus on the fact that, you know, people are always gonna need to move. And our job is to really, you know, connect with people and, you know, look, maybe they don't buy immediately. Maybe we work with them over the period of a year, but things change, you know, interest rates are going down, you know, there's always fluidity, but, you know, we just try to really stay consistent with the way that we do business and it's just, you know, kind of, it's worked out over the years.

Yeah, you brought up younger consumers. You know, over time, home buying has become increasingly unaffordable for younger people, which is one reason why we are seeing this huge political shift in New York City right now, right? Because I think younger people are, you know, really responding to the message that you're being left out We're going to do something about it. And obviously New York City has a lot of roots in capitalism. It's where Wall Street is. And that's playing out really all around the country. Do you think though, and you know, we were all taught growing up that the path to an American dream was buying a home, you know, white picket fence, two-car garage, you know, two and a half children, whatever it may be. That's kind of changed as well. So how are younger people looking at buying homes as sort of a rite of passage relative to maybe how it was a couple decades ago?

I think that they are looking at it. I don't know if it's so much of a rite of passage, but the opportunity to create a community. I think community is something that has become really more and more important to people in general. But I think specifically to a younger generation, they are looking to connect more. And I think that is also an outgrowth of COVID And so I don't know if it's as much as, you know, a rite of passage, like a badge, the way maybe it was back, you know, back for our parents. It's more that they are really craving a community of people, you know, to live close to. And, you know, I have a lot of, you know, younger friends, you know, babysitters of mine, frankly, who have just kind of rented their first apartments. And I hear their stories and it's amazing because they've all managed to kind of move into a neighborhood where they have a lot of friends. And I don't think that when I was getting my first apartment that like, I just wanted to like get the right location. I wanted to get the right, you know, I wanted to be, you know, with the right view. And I cared about those sort of lot more, you know, like badge-worthy aspects of buying. And I think what people really care more about now is having a community in the neighborhood and to really, you know, be able to live a rich life. And so I don't know if it's as much of a right, But I do think that that is something that they crave. And obviously home buying is a step in that direction. But yes, I mean, New York is its own microcosm. I mean, you know, rents are so, so expensive. And, you know, I think it's very different when you look outside of New York. But I think that it's the sense of community that's really driving a younger generation to put down roots more so than, you know, just, you know, needing to have a house or an apartment by a certain age, which I think was different in our, in our generation.

Yeah, for sure. So obviously, you know, the big story here in 2025 in business is AI. And obviously the power of AI resides in data. And, you know, real estate has tons of data, right? You have market data, you have individual, you know, data on prospects. And obviously like cities like New York publish things like, you know, open data where they publish everything from crime rates to traffic to air quality by city block. So there's so much data that you can use in your role, you know, sitting on top of the Corcoran brand. How are you looking at AI and how it's gonna change the real estate industry?

I hope that no matter what happens with AI, the home buying process will still be a person-to-person connection.

Right. You don't see a robot helping somebody buy a home anytime soon.

I don't. And so I think that's the great news. And I think that that's a little bit of a protection for, the business, but—

Yeah.

We are using it in every other way possible. I mean, it is incredible to really be a tool for the agents to be more efficient, to take care of a lot of the tasks that they would normally have spent a lot of their time doing, to really free them up for the human stuff, so to speak, that they do best. So whether it's to free them up, whether it is to use AI to write property descriptions that are going to be more you know, optimized for what people are looking for, whether it is, you know, being able to synthesize the data about neighborhoods, really. And, you know, and I'm using it to make sure that I'm, you know, precise in who we're targeting. I'm using AI— I'm using AI to understand how effective different creative is that I'm putting out there. And so I think that there are so many incredible ways to make us more efficient, to make us really more informed. But for the agent, I don't know that it's gonna replace at least immediately what they do best and what is at the heart of the business, which is connecting with people and, and finding them homes. But it, it, it has been fascinating to start to use AI and, and see, you know, how, how it can make us really more efficient in our day-to-day and that of the agent too.

Yeah, I mean, it's fascinating, you know, in terms of there's a lot of potential applications obviously of AI in this space, everything from using the the power of virtual augmented reality to be able to see places when you're not able to go, to giving people access to information about properties where they don't have to maybe talk to a broker as much. But I agree, I think if I were a broker, I would just be spending more time building automation to, to do the things that aren't high touch and then focusing on the relationships because that's kind of the barbell, right? You can create the scale and the automation through AI, but you can't automate out relationships and trust and customers that you have over time.

Absolutely. Real estate is, I'm glad you said it, a very high-touch business. And that's really what sets a good agent apart from another really is the ability to kind of double down on the high-touch aspect of the business. And it is a referral business. If you ask some of the best agents how they get their clients, it's through referrals. I hate to say it, less from the advertising.

Right.

That's the truth.

Yeah. Well, I think that, you know, the brand provides a halo, a level of trust.

Of course.

Someone who's bought plenty of real estate in my life, I just, I, I don't know how I'd feel working with a broker of a brand that I've never heard of before. 'Cause you question like the back office and can you trust them? And it's just, it, brand matters.

You know, I, I'm happy to hear you say that because believe it or not, that is a controversial topic in the real estate business, whether or not a brand does matter. And of course, because my MO for 20 years is that brand matters very much. But, you know, that's not necessarily how all of, you know, my colleagues in the industry see it. And I think that that is a missed opportunity, especially as so much of the transactional aspects of this business do become automated, that the brand that is able to kind of transcend that and really have a message that is more, you know, human to human is, is to me the brand that's going to have, you know, more longevity in the future.

Yeah. So let's talk about marketing and media and how you're getting the message out. So obviously you have a lot of different audiences that you target. What are some of the more interesting ways that you've been working to build the brand here in 2025? And what do you see being most effective moving forward?

You know, I really think that, you know, so I've, I've been here long enough to remember the days where the majority of what our advertising was consisted of classified advertising in The New York Times. It was basically, you know, if you lived in New York in the '90s, pretty much The New York Times was the kind of the de facto MLS because that's really where people went to look for properties either on their website or in the newspaper. And so, I've seen a complete and total revolution across the media landscape. And I think, I always say this, that I think social media in a way was really meant for the real estate business because it has— Yeah. Enables agents to come out of their shells and really put out there what it is that they're all about, put their personality out there, put their experience out there, really show who they are in an authentic way. Otherwise, it's really hard to— you're in the middle of a very important transaction, as we said, when you're going to buy a home with somebody and you don't really know who they are. You're going to be spending a lot of time with them. You're going to be divulging a lot of information to them. And so to be able to kind of see what they're all about on social media, I think has been a really incredible boon to the real estate business and to agents in general, especially those who are able to relax and be authentic online. So I think that's been amazing for agents, for agents in the business, for a brand like Corcoran that is kind of like unabashedly a little bit out there, a little bit very playful, very, you know, we're willing to take risks. It's meant for us too, because we have been able to, you know, kind of show all the different aspects of our personality on there and not really be worried about looking stupid or looking silly. And that's kind of at the heart of, you know, look at Barbara. I mean, like we said, the halo. I mean, all these years later, she is the queen of social media. And a big part of it is she's just willing to kind of let her hair down and be who she is. And that— sort of heritage has been part of our brand ever since. And that's how we are too. I mean, you know, I myself put myself out there on social media more than I thought that I would be comfortable with. But you know—

You almost need to these days.

Yeah. I mean, and, and I guess when I look at the other brands in the business, I think that we're, we probably are the one that's most willing to, to be authentic and, and show our personality. And so social media, I think, has been really great for Corcoran. I mean, in the past year, our social presence has grown 25%, and our nearest competitor's grown about 3%. We were a very early adopter in TikTok and have an extremely strong presence on TikTok. And so I think that, to me, if I were to look at all of the sort of the media landscape, the social media platforms have been the most important for Corcoran to kind of sort of just grow an audience of people who now are able to see who we are as a brand, who our agents are. It's enabled us to really show people a little bit more in terms of what neighborhoods have to offer. It's given us a platform to talk about, you know, to kind of guide people on the real estate process in a way. There's a lot of questions out there, especially for a younger generation. They are hungry for information. And, you know, for that kind of first-time homebuyer audience, we've been able to speak to them on a more, you know, speak to them, you know, not at them about what the, what the process is, is all about.

Awesome. Totally makes sense.

Yeah.

I mean, it's crazy that if you think about the real estate industry, how much it seeped its way also into pop culture, like these shows on Netflix just continue to do well. You have Ryan Serhant obviously in his show right now doing well. And, and obviously we talked about Barbara and her stardom through Shark Tank, but then, There's been so many shows, you know, Selling Sunset and the list goes on and on. Why do you think real estate is such a fascinating topic for the mainstream consumer?

Yeah, you know, it is a very, very voyeuristic business. And, you know, every party I go to, every dinner I sit down on, everyone wants to talk about real estate. You know, and that has actually been the case since the day that I started, you know. Right.

You wouldn't think of it as something that's a sexy industry, but it kind of is.

It is sexy. And look, people love to— they're voyeuristic in terms of looking into people's homes, you know? And that's another reason why social media has been such an interesting component of this business is because it has let agents kind of do these tours and give people looks into the different, you know, nooks and crannies of some of these apartments in New York you'll never get into. I mean, the apartments that I've seen in my 20-plus years here, you know, I could write a book about them. And so, that has been almost like, you know, pulling back the curtain on what a lot of this real estate looks like. And that is very appealing to people. So I think it's sort of the voyeuristic aspect of, you know, getting a look into how people live. And, you know, the shows have really, you know, made the business even more kind of suspenseful and sexy. And it's added a lot of kind of, you know, like you said, pop culture enthusiasm about it. I mean, I have— this was never really a business where I didn't see earlier on my career that peop— it was always like a second career. You know, people were like, oh, I was a lawyer and now I'm an agent, or I was in finance, I'm an agent. Now you get kids coming out of college saying, I wanna be a real estate agent. That is a, that had never happened before. And for sure the shows, you know, it's, look, it's fast-paced. It looks, you know, a lot of these agents on those shows have like glamorous lifestyles. You know, they're like, they're doing well too. Because, you know, they're driving great cars and they're, you know, meeting interesting clients. And so I think that, It's, it's, it's been the, the halo of that, even though we don't, we're not, you know, in a lot of those shows. We, you know, we have one agent, a great agent of ours who's in one of the shows, but it's definitely put a spotlight on, on the business, which is, you know, good for all of us.

Yeah, for sure. So wrapping up here, just would love to know from you, you know, as you look back on your career, 'cause you said, you know, you started off in the agency world and here you are, you know, the CMO of Corcoran, such a well-established prominent brand. When you look back at your career journey, what were some of the things you think you did right along the way, decisions that you made that in the end turned out fruitful, even if you might not have known it at the time?

I didn't plan on getting into advertising. You know, my first job was at New York 1 News in, in New York. I was a, a roving camera woman and I thought I was gonna be in the news business and, um, quickly figured out that I didn't wanna do that. Um, and I ended up sort of falling into the agency world, but I think that was an incredible learning ground for me. And I always tell people who want to get into marketing that I think, I still think, even though it's, you know, gotten harder, I still think the agency business is a great way to start. I was able to really see all the different departments and thinking that goes into advertising. You know, I learned to respect creative by spending a lot of time with the creatives. I learned a lot, probably the most I've learned in my career have been from the planners and really respecting and understanding the types of research that goes into, you know, developing insights and coming up with big ideas. And so, I think that it was a good move to have got into the agency side first. I got extremely lucky that a boss of mine at Thompson took me over to Mastercard. That was a lucky break. And, you know, I could have stayed at the agency side. So, that was probably, if I look back on it, the biggest, the best decision of my career was to hop over to the client side and see it from that perspective. If I had not had that experience at Mastercard working on Priceless, which, you know—

Right.

Iconic. Iconic.

Yeah, iconic, for sure.

Iconic campaign, then I would never have had the chutzpah, frankly, to go to Corcoran in my late 20s and say, oh, sure, yeah, I can rebrand this company after, you know, this incredible founder has been at it for all of these years. That gave me the courage to go ahead and do that. And also, let's be honest, a transactional business like Mastercard that became, you know, really planted its flag in the emotional high ground, okay, there was a similarity obviously in what I ended up doing at Corcoran. And so, you know, there's a lot of luck that I had in my career, but I think that also staying at places for a good amount of time, you know, I mean, you see younger people who jump around, you know. Yeah. I had, you know, about 4.5 years at Thomson, 4.5 years at Mastercard, and now, I know I'm a dinosaur, 20 years at Corcoran. But, you know, there's a lot of benefit, I think, to staying at a place for a good amount of a period of time. And I don't think that's something that a younger generation really understands. But I'm a big proponent of it, as long as you feel like you're still able to innovate and you're still able to feel, you know, fresh about what you do.

Yeah, I love that. And I, I agree. I think people are prone to jump around and I think obviously you get to know the brand, it kind of becomes a part of you and obviously you continue to gain more deep domain knowledge on the real estate industry, which obviously, especially as an industry as dynamic as yours, I think becomes super helpful and critical over time.

Yeah.

So Christina, we always ask our guests, uh, when we wrap up the pods, uh, if there's a saying or mantra that comes to mind that encapsulates their career journey so far. So just curious what you got.

I think I'm gonna say go big or go home.

Love that.

Which as, uh—

That might be mine if I were asked on this podcast.

You know, um, look, I believe you gotta take a lot of risks in life and I have, especially creatively, you know, um, it was a very big risk to, to, you know, rebrand the, the business all those years ago, um, in a ca— in a, in a direction that no one was, you know, even thinking about, you know, that was a risk. It was a risk to, you know, work with the types of photographers that I have over the years. You know, Annie Leibovitz doing a real estate campaign, Tina Barney doing, you know, all the creative risks that I took, I think were, you know, I don't wanna say paid off, but they were worth it, you know, they were worth it. And I always feel that, you know, you can't really make an impact unless you take a risk. And so I do try to kind of, I talk to my team about that a lot in all of the creative decisions that we make. But beyond my work life, I feel like go big or go home when I'm planning a party, go big or go home when it's the holidays. I really feel like you gotta just go for it, get out of your comfort zone, and go big because then you're gonna have a regret. And who wants to have regrets?

This is not a rehearsal, right?

No, it's not. I mean, the time is now. We're not getting it back.

Awesome. Well, given that and given how valuable your time is, I really appreciate you taking the time to share your insights and experience leading the Corcoran brand today. It's been a fascinating conversation and a really unique industry, and I know that our audience is going to get a ton from it. So thanks for joining.

Thanks, Matt.

Absolutely. On behalf of Susan and I, we team— thanks again to Christina Ponos, the Chief Marketing Officer of the Corcoran Group, for joining us today. Be sure to subscribe, rate, and review the Speed of Culture podcast on your favorite podcast platform. Till next time, time. See you soon, everyone. Bye-bye. Hey!