1. Century 21 taps mobile games to reach
potential customers
The real estate giant put its brand in front of players of the mobile game ‘We
City’ by offering them branded buildings and giving bonuses for watching
videos.
By Matt Wilson | Posted: July 5, 2011
Imagine if you could get a free house, skyscraper or office simply by
putting a company’s brand name on it somewhere.
Though that sounds like a pretty crazy business practice in the real
world, Century 21 made just such an offer in the virtual world of
mobile game developer ngmoco’s “We City.” In the "SimCity"-style
game for iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch, players build cities using
“coin” they acquire in the game to add buildings.
In April, the real estate sales company, in partnership with social firm Appssavvy, gave players the
option of adding Century 21-branded buildings to their cities. Over the three weeks or so the
promotion ran, players placed 401,318 branded structures.
That proves mobile gaming is a place where brands can really get through to potential customers, Related Articles
says Matt Gentile, director of communications at Century 21.
Century 21 puts a consistent brand on its
“You’re looking at reaching approximately 26 million consumers who are playing these games,” he diverse social media channels
says. “In order to effectively reach the next generation of home buyers and sellers, what better place
to put a brand placement?”
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Entering the space
Century 21 began its talks with Appssavvy early this year, Gentile says. In March, the company also Featured Article
rolled out its new multiplatform mobile app at its international convention, so Century 21’s focus was Mobile
Social Media
already strongly on mobile platforms.
“We realized the importance and growing preference for consumers to gather information, research
and, in the gaming space, have a lot of fun, directly from their smartphones,” Gentile says. “Our
leadership here on the marketing team, through Bev Thorne, our CMO, has always tried to make
sure that we’re a step ahead.”
Appsavvy initially brought Century 21 the idea of getting into a mobile game, but Century 21’s team
decided on offering the three free structures. The company also offered players in-game money for
watching 30-second ads.
Picking the game
There were “a number of advantages” to promoting the Century 21 brand via “We City,” Gentile
says. For one thing, it’s a game about building real estate.
“What more applicable game for the world largest real estate brand to get involved in than one that
has an emphasis on building houses?” he says.
The game had some other attractive traits, too. It was fairly new, with its initial release in September
2010, but had a “significant population” of about 10 million actively playing, Gentile says. Even more
important, no other brands had used the game for similar promotions.
Appssavvy and ngmoco each promoted the initiative via blog posts, which led to comments ranging
from excitement to good-natured ribbing. “Talk about product placement!” commenter dexster69
wrote on the “We City” website. “I suddenly have the urge to buy a house from Century 21.”

2. Driving preference
Gentile says Century 21 doesn’t quite have the ability to track a game player from the game to the
Century 21 website to a lead form or purchase just yet, but the “results have been very favorable”
when it comes to driving customer preferences, he says.
“The metrics we came away with from the brand survey study are pretty powerful stuff,” Gentile says.
More than 90 percent of users who got a prompt to watch a video clicked through to see the ad.
That equaled about 300,000 video views in three weeks. Of the players who placed buildings in the
game—and about 92 percent of those who had the chance did so—58 percent retained the brand’s
message, the survey found.
Once the campaign was over, 21 percent more users thought the brand was “smart” than had
previously, and nearly 18 percent more found Century 21 “innovative.”
“Perhaps they didn’t think of Century 21 in such a light prior to seeing us in a new medium,” says
Gentile.
The next step for Century 21 is preparing for its 2012 Super Bowl ad after a long stint of avoiding TV
advertising, Gentile says. But rest assured mobile communications “will continue to be a huge
opportunity for brands like ours,” he says.
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