The ad, which intended to demonstrate how the agency used both portals to market properties, was ruled as misleading and will be prevented from appearing again in its current form.
Kirk Estates’ ad stated, ‘Different audiences use Rightmove & Zoopla that’s why at Kirk Estates we use BOTH to market your property’, and showed Rightmove as having a higher proportion of properties available in its diagram.
The complainant, estate agency Spicerhaart, said that the data was presented in a way that implied Zoopla had a larger share of available properties than was the case. It also challenged the advertisement’s claim that different segments of the buyer market were exclusive to specific portals was misleading.
In its response, Kirks Estates explained that it had quoted the number of properties on the portals from the home pages of the respective websites and sourced the diagram from a ‘highly credible’ and ‘impartial advice site’.
However, the ASA ruled consumers would consider the claim that ‘different audiences use Rightmove & Zoopla’ as an objective statement that some individuals were using one portal exclusively over the other in their search for a property.
It added that while data had been obtained from the respective portals, evidence had not been provided to demonstrate that the information quoted was correct by the time the ad had gone to press, in addition to being unable to confirm the veracity of third party data used in its diagram.
