with Steve Pratt, Author of the hit book Earn It
with Steve Pratt, Author of the hit book Earn It
CASE STUDY
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Commercial real estate is one of the world’s most relationship-driven industries. Clients don’t simply buy expertise. They look for advisors who understand where markets are heading before the rest of the industry catches up.
Avison Young already had that expertise.
Its professionals worked with investors, developers, occupiers and city builders around the world, giving the firm a unique perspective on how workplaces, cities and commercial real estate were evolving.
The challenge wasn’t finding insights.
It was creating a consistent platform where those insights could earn attention and trust long before a client needed to make a real estate decision.
Rather than producing another market update, Avison Young wanted to build a podcast that would help business leaders better understand the forces shaping the future of the built environment.
Together, JAR and Avison Young developed Changing Places, a podcast that explored the trends reshaping cities, workplaces and commercial real estate through conversations with industry leaders, economists, designers and innovators.
Rather than focusing on transactions or quarterly market reports, the series examined the larger forces influencing how people live, work and invest. Episodes connected commercial real estate to technology, sustainability, urban planning and changing patterns of work, giving listeners broader context for the decisions they faced every day.
JAR partnered with Avison Young throughout the production process, including:
Every editorial decision was guided by one question:
Would this conversation help industry leaders better understand where commercial real estate is going, not just where it is today?
Avison Young already possessed deep expertise across commercial real estate.
The challenge wasn’t demonstrating knowledge.
It was making that knowledge consistently valuable to people outside the firm.
The JAR System shifted the focus away from promoting Avison Young’s services and toward helping listeners make sense of a rapidly changing industry. Instead of asking how the podcast could showcase the firm’s expertise, it asked how each episode could help someone become a better-informed leader.
That change influenced everything from the calibre of guests and editorial structure to the pacing and framing of every conversation.
The result was a podcast that strengthened Avison Young’s reputation by consistently delivering insight rather than promotion.
The JAR System transformed Changing Places from a branded industry podcast into a trusted destination for conversations about the future of commercial real estate.
| Before | After applying the JAR System |
|---|---|
| Report on commercial real estate trends | Explain the forces shaping the future of cities and workplaces |
| Promote company expertise | Build trust through consistently valuable insights |
| Focus on transactions | Explore long-term market transformation |
| Speak primarily to existing clients | Build a global audience of industry leaders |
| Publish branded content | Create an enduring thought leadership platform |
The strongest thought leadership doesn’t come from telling people you’re an expert.
It comes from helping them understand the future before they have to make decisions about it.
Avison Young already possessed the expertise. The opportunity was to organize that knowledge around the questions commercial real estate leaders were already asking about cities, workplaces, investment and change.
By defining the podcast’s job before production began, the JAR System transformed expertise into a resource people chose to spend time with. The result was a thought leadership platform that built trust not by promoting the firm’s capabilities, but by consistently helping its audience make better decisions.
Before production began, JAR worked with Avison Young to define the podcast’s Job, Audience and Result.
Help commercial real estate leaders make better decisions by exploring the economic, technological and cultural forces reshaping cities and workplaces.
The podcast wasn’t designed to report market news.
It was designed to provide perspective.
The series was created for commercial real estate professionals, investors, developers, corporate occupiers and business leaders interested in understanding where the market was heading.
These listeners didn’t need more headlines.
They needed context.
Success meant establishing Avison Young as a trusted thought leader while building a loyal audience that returned for informed conversations about the future of commercial real estate.
Once the Job, Audience and Result were established, every editorial decision became clearer, from guest selection and episode structure to storytelling and promotion.
Episodes achieved an average 95% listener-through rate, demonstrating that audiences stayed engaged throughout conversations despite the complexity of the subject matter.
The podcast attracted listeners in more than 60 countries, extending Avison Young’s thought leadership well beyond its existing client relationships.
Changing Places established a consistent editorial platform where Avison Young could explore the future of commercial real estate through conversations that strengthened credibility with clients, prospects and industry partners.
Each episode became an evergreen content asset that continued demonstrating Avison Young’s expertise while supporting business development, executive visibility and client engagement long after publication.
