Buying a home can bring more than just mortgage worries: contracting, renovation and decorating all often need to be to addressed. In order to help new home owners navigate these issues, Scotiabank and Rogers have forged a new partnership to engage both first-time and experienced home-buyers with lifestyle and financial advice on their new Home Experts microsite.

The website will feature trend and service stories from Rogers’ online properties such as CanadianBusiness.com, Macleans.ca, TodaysParent.com and Chatelaine.com, as well as Citytv’s CityLine and CityNews sites. The partnership was arranged by PHD in Toronto.

‘It’s not just about the big finance hubs and talking to the advanced investor – it’s about going where people are in their daily lives and really talking more about personal finance,’ Paul Regan, director of digital marketing and planning, Scotiabank, tells MiC. ‘Hopefully, the richness we can bring as Scotiabank is that financial side to people’s regular lives,’ he says.

The website will be promoted on the Scotiabank website, search engine marketing, an e-newsletter that’s sent out to a million recipients and banner ads across the Rogers properties providing the content, such as CanadianBusiness.com. The launch of the website also includes an online contest for the chance to win $5,000.

The Home Experts website also hosts info videos from a panel of experts, including Scotiabank staff and popular DIY and home-reno personalities such as Jim Caruk, a judge on Mike Holmes’ HGTV show Handyman Superstar Challenge and host of HGTVs Real Renos; Karen Sealy, a regular decor expert on Citytv’s CityLine; and Scotiabank’s home financing expert Deren Hasip. The aim of the program is to create a trusting environment for home buyers, says Regan.

‘A lot of times, advertising tries to compete for audience attention with the content,’ he says of the content integration. ‘I think there’s an opportunity for us to have a voice and complement the direction of those sites.’