PR News Coverage

1. 3/30/2011 Century 21 buys back into TV ads in a …
Published on Inman News (http://www.inman.com)
Century 21 buys back into TV ads in a big way:
the Super Bowl
By matt_carter
Created 2011-03-30 01:00
When Century 21 Real Estate announced two years ago that it would stop running national television ads in
order to boost its online ad spend, the venerable franchisor said it already had all the name recognition a
company could ever want.
Now, Century 21 is getting back into TV in the splashiest way imaginable, announcing that it will run a spot
during Super Bowl XLVI, on Feb. 5, 2012.
Next week, TV ads promoting the skills of Century 21 agents will begin airing on Discovery Communications'
cable channel, TLC, which will also feature the 40-year-old franchise in an upcoming episode of "Cake Boss."
It's highly unlikely that anyone has forgotten that Century 21 exists in the two years that the franchise has been
absent from the airwaves. So why come back?
Century 21 says it has devoted considerable resources to educating and training its agents, and it wants the
world to know.
"We think the market knows exactly who Century 21 is, but we're not sure they know who our agent is, and
what their capabilities are," said Bev Thorne, Century 21's chief marketing officer. The brand's "Smarter,
Bolder, Faster [1]" campaign, in addition to TV and radio ads, which will also feature online and print
components.
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2. 3/30/2011 Century 21 buys back into TV ads in a …
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The ad campaign is part of a wave of new marketing initiatives from the franchisor, including a new website
and mobile apps for all smartphone and feature phones.
Thorne said Century 21 has entered into partnerships with five listings portals -- Realtor.com, Zillow, Trulia,
Homes.com and Homefinder.
The partnerships are an expansion of Century 21's existing "Gold Standard Partnership [2]" with Realtor.com
operator Move Inc., she said, in which the franchisor helps franchise owners pay for enhanced listings.
"We are subsidizing the placement and appearance of listings, helping enhance the position and representation
of listings on the sites," Thorne said. Although there's some duplication in the sites' audiences, she said together
they reach an aggregate audience of 350 million to 400 million visitors.
When Century 21 pulled the plug [3] on TV advertising in 2009, then-president and CEO Tom Kunz said the
company wanted to shift the money into online marketing efforts including display ads, search-engine
marketing, and partnerships with real estate listing sites.
Kunz said at the time that while dollars once spent on TV would be shifted into online marketing, the overall
marketing budget had shrunk as a result of the downturn (Kunz resigned [4] in February 2010 and was
replaced by Rick Davidson).
AdAge.com, citing estimates by Kantar Media, reported [5] that Century 21's total media spending dropped
43 percent in 2009, to $18.9 million, and by another 36 percent last year, to $12 million. Kantar estimated
that Century 21 spent $9.6 million on TV ads in 2008, about two-thirds on cable networks.
But Thorne said those numbers are "completely false. They are not even close to the facts that I know."
Although Thorne declined to provide specifics on Century 21's spending on marketing, she said spending on
both online and offline advertising will increase this year.
Century 21 has been embroiled for nearly a decade in a lawsuit by franchisees claiming that the company
misappropriated fees paid by franchisees into a national advertising fund, among other claims. Century 21 has
said the claims in the 2002 lawsuit are without merit, though lawyers representing five Century 21 franchisees
won class-action certification [6] in August to represent other similarly situated brokerages.
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