Brown Harris Stevens Residential Sales Receives Top Honors as Christie’s Great Estates Affiliate-of-the-Year

Toronto, Ontario, Canada — Christie’s Great Estates, the world’s leading luxury real estate network, presented the inaugural Overall Affiliate-of-the-Year Award this week to Brown Harris Stevens Residential Sales of Manhattan, New York. The real estate firm—a member of the Christie’s Great Estates network of more than 130 international Affiliates—was selected as the overall winner from the small-, medium-, and large-market categories at the network’s 2010 Global Annual Conference for Owners and Senior Management in Toronto, Canada.

Launched this year, the Affiliate-of-the-Year Awards recognizes three Affiliated brokerages in small (population less than 275,000), medium (population between 275,000 and 1,750,000), and large (population over 1,750,000) markets. The recipient of the small-market award was Lila Delman Real Estate of Newport, Rhode Island. The winner of the medium-market winner was Ken Jacobs of Sydney, Australia. The other finalists across the three categories included Van Sciver Realtors of Mantoloking, New Jersey; Barbara Cleary’s Realty Guild of New Canaan, Connecticut; Profusion Realty of Montréal, Québec, Canada; IRG International Realty Group of Portugal; Harry Norman, Realtors of Atlanta, Georgia; and Pacific Union International of San Francisco, California.

Submissions were received from all corners of the international network, which is composed of the world’s top luxury real estate brokerages. Affiliates demonstrated how they incorporated the Christie’s Great Estates and Christie’s brands into their company’s marketing strategy. The most ingenious branding statements included a Broadway-inspired interior design event at a $24 million estate, client and press events aboard the luxury residential cruise liner The World, and prominent branding advertisements placed at transit stations. Other Affiliates provided brand exposure at high-profile sports events including a polo exhibition in Argentina and wind- and kite-surfing competitions—with logos embossed on sails and on the bottom of boards—as well as a golf tournament with flags branded with logos.

Headquartered on Park Avenue in Manhattan, with nine offices around New York City, Brown Harris Stevens Residential Sales was founded in 1873 and represents the Christie’s Great Estates brand in the city. An exclusive Affiliate of Christie’s Great Estates since 1995, Brown Harris Stevens Residential Sales was recognized for outstanding achievements in their local marketplace, most notably exemplary use of the Christie’s Great Estates brand and programs.

The company highlights its Christie’s Great Estates affiliation in every possible venue, from store windows throughout New York City, to branded shopping bags, and in the e-mail signatures of all company agents. Earlier this year, working with Avenue Magazine, Brown Harris Stevens produced a 12-page advertorial, “At the Top,” which included an entire page devoted to the firm’s exclusive affiliation with the network. The company has also held a number of events in conjunction with the auction house and actively participated in the Bespoke Marketing Program—Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Trump Tower Duplex sold the evening of the conference’s opening reception on Tuesday evening. Brown Harris Stevens is by far the most active participant in the Referral Program and regularly sends art referrals to Christie’s.

“It is an honor to present the inaugural Affiliate-of-the-Year Award to Brown Harris Stevens Residential Sales of Manhattan, New York,” said Zackary Wright, Christie’s Great Estates Senior Vice President and Director, Project Development Marketing, Americas, who conceived and managed the judging. “The landmark firm was recognized for outstanding achievements in co-branding, seamlessly promoting the Christie’s imprimatur with their own company brand.”

(Pictured above: Hall Willkie, Brown Harris Stevens; Kay Coughlin, Christie’s Great Estates; Zackary Wright, Christie’s Great Estates)