Zillow Gone Wild--How 1 guy's hobby became an HGTV show

Have you guys heard of Zillow Gone Wild?

It is a crazy story of how an obscure hobby turned into a social media account which turned into a reality TV show on HGTV. All at the hands of Samir Mezrahi.

Once the social media director for Buzzfeed, Mezrahi spent over a decade scouring the internet for story content.

But in December 2020, everything changed. Using the same Buzzfeed-esque method of search, post, destroy with pithy commentary, Mezrahi created Zillow Gone Wild.

This was an account featuring the quirkiest homes on the market. I’m talking castle-themed mansions with full on drawbridges. An unsuspecting from the outside, but insane barbie-core on the inside Indiana home. And a house shaped like a UFO.

Obviously, this exploded into a social media phenomenon.

The account has over 4 million followers across platforms. And Mezrahi barely needs to lift a finger to find the next house to post about. Because followers and real estate agents send him 20-30 houses every single day.

For a luxury listing to make it into a 'Mansion Monday' post, it has to be a mansion-plus. Like this $20m Arizona property, that includes a go-kart track, a 6,000-square foot man cave, a golf simulator, home theatre, dance studio and video gaming area.

Oh, that’s MONEY money. This post in particular amassed over 24 million views in the first 24 hours.

'It’s what you say you would do if you’re rich,' Mezrahi says. 'When you’re a kid you would say you want all these things…they went through with it and did it all.'

Once he finds what he’s looking for in a property, Mezrahi builds a post around it. This means securing photo permissions from the listing agent and recording himself talking about the house for TikTok and YouTube.

He always saves the surprising elements of the home for later in the post. 'I try not to give too much away,' he says. He describes the format as 'normal house, normal room, normal room, oooh, here is why it’s wild.'

His accounts are so popular that HGTV has created a show around the concept.

The show premiered on May 3rd, hosted comedian Jack McBrayer. It features 24 homes from around the U.S. either up for sale or recently sold. McBrayer takes the audience inside them and explores all their quirks. At the end of the series, one of the homes will win the title of the country’s 'wildest'.

Aside from this being a cool story, I think there are some takeaways here for both marketers and creators.

While some could put this down to luck, there are things he did that we can replicate.

• Start with an audience truth. Mezrahi seized an opportunity while the whole world was in lockdown, peak pandemic. He enjoyed browsing Zillow for interesting homes. So he tapped into an audience truth, which was that we were all were bored and wanted buzzy sh*t to look at. When you can tap into a truth like this, you know your content will resonate with other people.

• Leverage your skillset. Being an avid researcher and writer for Buzzfeed was a clear advantage in this case. But Mezrahi was also really talented at finding the 'next thing everyone would be talking about.' A former co-worker remembered him as always being '10 steps ahead.' So what's that thing you're known for, and how can you leverage that for your content?

• Engage with your audience. Mezrahi built a relationship with his followers by accepting their recommendations and actively interacting with them daily. This meant he not only built strong follower loyalty, but it also made his job of finding content so much easier.

Mezrahi is now focused on finding the next viral sensation. Unless, that is, you find it first.

-Sophie, Writer