Sometimes things you create take on a life of their own whether you intended it or not.

Take our syndication graphic.

If there is one image that those in the Real Estate industry associate with Point2 Agent (besides our product’s logo of course) it is this  graphic.  Originally conceived as a one-time-use illustration in 2006 as a way to graphically represent the new (at the time) concept of syndication with only 8 partners, we had so much positive feedback that we continued using it in all of our marketing and updated it as we added partners – even though the constant maintenance is a full time job in and of itself, just ask our Art Director!

Today the syndication graphic stands at 37 active syndication partners, not to mention the hundreds of local re-syndication partners we currently offer – it is truly is a beautiful monster.

We are obviously very proud of our little graphic, but what I think what we are most proud of is its theft.

Let me explain.  Well, actually, I’ll let Google explain.

Check out these Google Image Search results for the phrase “listing syndication”, or if you are feeling adventurous you can perform the query yourself.

Look familiar?  While about half of the first page results are our venerable graphic, the rest are basically a motley assortment of rip-offs, remixes, and versions with a few “creative liberties” taken to them.  Here are a few of our favorites:

On closer inspection you can classify the imitations into two categories, those who merely replace the center piece with their own logo (pro-tip: you can tell it is a rip-off since only Point2 Agent lets you syndicate to Point2 Homes), and those which take the exact same concept but just change the center piece as well as the color of the arrows.

However we’re not mad about all this, in fact we are ecstatic.  Having our graphic ripped off  tells us three things:

1)  By remixing our intellectual property it shows that others hold it in high enough regard to actually warrant adapting it for their own use.  This makes all the work to maintain it and update worthwhile.

2)  By keeping the imitations close to the same concept it merely reinforces our original graphic and makes it more recognizable to our target audience & helps build our brand equity.  We like to think of it as free advertising.

3)  As continuation of #2, when people see the same concept over and over they learn to associate the whole concept of syndication with our illustration.  So when an Agent, Broker, or MLS/Association executive sees an imitation graphic the first thing they think of is Point2Agent.

So to all potential pirates out there, I only have one thing to say:  Help us out and steal our stuff!