Zillow is refreshing its advertising, launching a new campaign today that features people telling personal stories about what homeownership means to them. The campaign — simply dubbed “Home” — starts with eight spots that will run through the spring and summer on ABC, NBC, HGTV, TNT and TBS.
It also will include national radio, print, and digital advertising.
Zillow started an aggressive advertising campaign a few years ago, saying last year that it planned to spend upwards of $100 million in 2015 in a push to become the dominant online real estate brand. We’ve asked the company about its advertising spending for 2016, and we’ll update this post as we learn more. Update: The company has not disclosed its advertising spending plans for 2016.
Last summer, the company said that its advertising efforts were paying off, leading to more than 50 percent of real estate visits across the category. And that number now stands at 70 percent, helped in part by the company’s acquisition of rival Trulia.
In a financial report released last week, the company said that it averaged nearly 124 million unique monthly visitors for the fourth quarter. Zillow also is looking to distance itself from rivals, including News Corp.-owned Move Inc., which is locked in an ongoing — and expensive — legal fight with Zillow over the hiring of employee Errol Samuelson.
Zillow’s class A shares have fallen in value 27 percent so far this year.
“As we develop features and tools for Zillow, we talk with hundreds of thousands of people every year to understand their challenges, frustrations, hopes and dreams when it comes to finding a home,” said Zillow CMO Jeremy Wacksman in a press release. “What we ended up hearing were these deeply personal, yet universally relatable ways people turn a house into their home, and that’s what inspired this campaign.”
In one of the spots (seen above), a man talks about the emotions of being the first person in his family to buy a home. In another titled “Anne’s Home,” a young mother talks about taking over a dilapidated home and refreshing it with new love. In other ads, one man talks about how he’s always wanted to live on the water and a police officer talks about the joy of coming home to see his family. You can watch all of the ads here.
Here’s another of a woman talking about cooking and the importance of her kitchen.
