Where everybody knows your name

By Matt Carter, Wednesday, January 14, 2009.

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This year is probably the last one you'll see national TV ads like this 2008 spot promoting April as open house month from Century 21 Real Estate. The company says it's pulling the plug on national TV ads and putting the money into online advertising and marketing instead (see story).

Century 21 says it was the first franchisor to start running national TV spots in the 1970s. But the main benefit of ads like this one -- building brand awareness with consumers -- is perhaps less important when you've already got the name recognition Century 21 has achieved over the years.

There are more innovative ways to use television than conducting national brand building ad campaigns. ERA Franchise Systems has built an integrated national and local campaign around its sponsorship of "Ask This Old House," an online Q&A for consumers tied to the popular home remodeling show.

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Submitted by Matt Carter on January 15, 2009 - 9:36am.

Michael Callaghan, Century 21's senior vice president for digital and strategic marketing, talks to Inman TV about the shift to online. "We'll use a little more for display and search ... we also want to make sure our listings are distributed ... widely to other highly trafficked real estate sites ... where the eyeballs are, so those consumers can then go to Century21.com and continue the real estate search process. Social media is clearly a cornerstone of our strategy. We have some things were not prepared to talk about today, but we will be shortly ... YouTube, we did some testing of YouTube last year, we continue to find ways to leverage video content, and get our brokers and agents using video much more broadly. And we'll look at ways to leverage the social media, blogosphere, and find opportunities for our brokers and agents to participate more fully."