COMMERCIAL RESIDENCE | House of Clicks | 2016
200 Million Clicks Became One House / Hemnet "House of Clicks"
200 million. That's a staggering number. But it wasn't just a number. Etched into all those countless clicks was the shape of the house that two million Swedes dreamed of. They took that data and turned it into bricks and mortar, actually building a real house out of it. It might be the most romantic use of big data you'll ever see.
The problem
Hemnet is Sweden's biggest real estate portal, an overwhelming platform visited by two million people every week — that's 20% of the entire country's population. But even a market leader's position is never truly safe. On top of existing competitors, disruptive new players kept showing up. So Hemnet asked itself: what can only the biggest player do? What's the real value of an asset like two million people's worth of click data? It needed to go from being just a portal site to becoming a spokesperson for the future of real estate development — to redefine its position, with data as its weapon.
The insight
Hemnet's data scientists spent three months, from January to October 2014, thoroughly analyzing more than 200 million clicks generated across 86,000 properties. What emerged was the outline of "the house Swedes truly dream of" — number of rooms, size, price range, number of bathrooms, even the number of floors. All those unconscious choices, click by click, added up to make a collective desire visible. And the team realized this data could do more than market research — it could have an impact on business, on society, on the construction industry itself. Turning data into a creative brief — turning "ones and zeros into bricks and mortar" — was the whole idea at the heart of this project.
The idea
Based on the data scientists' analysis, leading Swedish architecture firm Tham & Videgård designed the "House of Clicks," drawing on the history of Swedish architecture and knowledge of contemporary housing. It's a commercially buildable 1.5-story house, co-created with two million Swedes — the moment statistics turned into architecture. The campaign was built around a website, and aimed to spark a worldwide conversation — pulling in architects, real estate developers, politicians, even game designers — about how big data could shape the future of real estate development and architecture. Strategically, they individually targeted editors and opinion leaders in tech, politics, architecture and design, actively engaging them in discussions about big data, crowdsourcing, and the role of the architect.
What happened
The results were striking. The dedicated website drew more than 460,000 visitors from 187 countries, generated over 10,000 mentions on social media, and was covered in 207 articles in traditional media, adding up to a total reach of 218 million and an estimated PR value of 2.2 million euros. Within a few weeks, 648 people from around the world registered saying they wanted to buy a House of Clicks, reaching an estimated value of 200 million dollars. Hemnet moved into the planning stage for building the first eight houses, and concrete business leads came in from investment firms and real estate companies. At the 2016 Cannes Lions, the campaign won Gold and Bronze in PR, Silver in Media, and Silver in Cyber. It successfully placed Hemnet at the center of a global conversation about the future of Scandinavian architecture and the role data can play in real estate development.
Afterthought
I got to witness the moment data stopped being "just numbers" and turned into someone's dream. Those 200 million clicks were really 200 million small wishes — "I want to live in a house like this" — all piled up together. And the boldness of actually, seriously turning that into a real house is irresistible. What's more, it actually led to real business, real discussion, and a genuine redefinition of the brand's position. Beyond being a beautifully executed PR campaign, it's a perfect showcase for what creative use of data can really look like. It made me want to start treating data a little more carefully myself.
Awards
- Cannes Lions Gold 2016
