Trulia is kicking off the house-hunting season with a slick new TV advertising campaign, part of a plan by the online real estate company to differentiate itself from rival Zillow. Trulia, which last year purchased Bellevue-based Market Leader for $355 million, is focusing on what it calls the “Moment of Trulia” and its specifically focusing on the mobile experience.

The campaign, which will run through the fall, is targeted at women between the ages of 25 to 44 and will consist of radio, TV, billboards and online.

moment-trulia11“The time is right for Trulia to invest in marketing to expand our reach with serious home buyers and sellers,” said Kira Wampler, who was recently named as Chief Marketing Officer for Trulia. “We have a great product and we know consumers are seeking a trusted brand to help them in their quest for a home.”

Trulia is locked in a battle for mindshare with Zillow, which is in the midst of its own very large marketing campaign. Last month, Zillow CEO Spencer Rascoff announced a bold plan to spend up to $65 million on national advertising in 2014, a huge uptick from the $40 million in spent in 2013. 

Zillow remains the larger company, with nearly 70 million monthly visitors and market value of $3.6 billion. Trulia is now valued at $1.18 billion.

Here’s what a Trulia spokesperson told GeekWire last month when asked about how the campaign will differentiate from Zillow.

“We believe we have created a more authentic approach to our marketing efforts that will allow us to break through in the category. Most marketing in the space is sentiment-based and undifferentiated. We know that if we focus on building the best product and create a differentiated campaign we can drive all our key metrics.”

That was echoed in remarks today by Wampler.  

“Most of the advertising in the category sells the dream of finding the perfect home, but life isn’t like that. The process can be daunting and you often have to make trade offs,” added Wampler. “We wanted to take an authentic, real approach to the category and show consumers specifically, how our mobile products solve their real life problems during the home search.”

In addition to Trulia and Zillow, Seattle-based Redfin also is looking at ramping up its marketing engines.

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