Real estate firm leverages social media for its commercial clients

NEW YORK - Glowbar co-founder, president and COO Neha Govindraj wants us all to take better care of our skin more regularly. And it's that "more regularly" qualifier, she believes, creates a need for an alternative to the 90-minute-to-three-hour facial at a traditional spa.

"[That] also will likely cost you well over $150," she said.

So Glowbar offers 30-minute facials for $65 (less with a monthly membership). To help attract the repeat customers it wants, the company relies in part on its real estate broker.

"We really use our platform as an extension of the clients we work with," Current Real Estate Advisors co-founder Adam Henick said.

Henick helps clients like Glowbar and Stoney Clover Lane find spaces that maximize sales and profit potential, which is also — in theory — what every other commercial real estate firm does.

"They've been really helpful in the traditional sense," Govindraj said.

But it's Current's non-traditional offerings that attracted Govindraj (and justified FOX 5 putting the firm on TV).

"One of their founders, Brandon, came in for a treatment," Govindraj said. "He recorded his whole experience."

That may not sound terribly innovating for an expensive marketing agency or that girl from high school you follow on Instagram, but for a commercial real estate firm with tens of thousands of followers, that's different and resulted in hundreds of new followers of Glowbar's social media accounts within hours, at no additional cost to Govindraj.

"It's really just using the platform to get the word out there for our clients," Henick said.

"I think it happens in part due to the fact they work with a lot of like-minded businesses," Govindraj said.

Current tries to surround its clients with other like-minded brands, stacking shopping streets with innovative businesses for the consumers of today.

"We've had a lot of success with direct-to-consumer brands," Henick said, "because I think they, more so than others, really understand the value of what social media can do from a customer acquisition perspective."

Henick acknowledges it's not an easy time to work in retail (or commercial real estate) in New York City, which he argues makes what Current offers — ongoing marketing via a social-media-powered platform at no additional cost to the client — invaluable to the companies with which he works, as they attempt not just to survive or come back from the pandemic downturn but emerge from it larger, more profitable, more recognizable brands.

"Ultimately, we're big believers in New York City bouncing back from this," Henick said.