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Century 21 Real Estate LLC, Madison, NJ, USA

Gold Stevie Award Winner 2012, Click to Enter The 2014 American Business Awards

Company: Century 21 Real Estate LLC, Madison, NJ, USA
Entry Submitted By: Mullen
Company Description: Century 21 Real Estate LLC (CENTURY21.com) is the franchisor of the world's largest residential real estate sales organization, providing comprehensive training and marketing support for the CENTURY 21 System. The System is comprised of approximately 7,100 independently owned and operated franchised broker offices in 74 countries and territories worldwide with more than 100,000 sales professionals
Nomination Category: Communications & Marketing Awards Categories
Nomination Sub Category: Communications or PR Campaign of the Year - Social Media Focused

Nomination Title: CENTURY 21 Breaks Bad

In up to 525 words, tell the judges about the nominated campaign: its genesis, development, planning, commission, and performance to date:

Budget: $400

Objectives:

• Generate awareness for Century 21 Real Estate LLC as the leader in “Smarter. Bolder. Faster.” marketing campaigns
• Drive digital conversation among consumers about the brand relative to the event
• Position the brand as clever, gutsy and culturally relevant to appeal to a younger demographic of homebuyers and sellers

Strategy:

After five years, millions of viewers and a copious amount of blue crystal meth, AMC announced that Walter White and Jesse Pinkman would be hanging up their aprons and gas masks.

Throughout the series, one “character” remained in the spotlight and served as a point of contention until the very end – the White family home. Walt and Skyler’s residence on Negra Arroyo Lane served as a metaphor for the White family and their relationships as they dealt with cancer, welcomed a new child, stashed cash and, ultimately, fell apart.

Despite its dark twists and turns, Breaking Bad is a show about family, and when families are ready to move on, Century 21 is ready to help. The final episode presented the perfect opportunity for the brand to weigh in and pay tribute. So, with little-to-no budget and less than a week to execute upon selling the idea, Century 21, with the help of Mullen, worked quickly to put a plan in motion to list the infamous residence.

Tactics:

To keep the effort grassroots, we opted to post a faux listing of the home on Craigslist. Placed in the Real Estate section under the caption “ALBUQURQUE PALACE WAITING FOR YOU,” the post featured a picture of the actual residence and a coy description riddled with nods to the show. Mullen also created a Google Voice phone number for “Century 21 Agent Carol” and included it in the copy for interested buyers to call. A prerecorded voicemail message greeted anyone who opted to call Carol, revealing who was really behind the faux listing and inviting people to leave messages.

In advance of the launch, Mullen developed tweets and Facebook posts about the home that could be sent out to influencers and viewers throughout the finale.

To generate attention for the initiative, Mullen pitched a strategic list of media targets including entertainment, branding, real estate and lifestyle reporters.

Evaluation of Success/Results/ROI:

Generated awareness and brand preference among our target audience of consumers
* Garnered more than 80 million media impressions
* Secured coverage from 42 top media outlets, including Adweek, Huffington Post, Inman, GQ, Creativity, Salon and more
* Garnered more than 10,590 organic and viral Facebook impressions, with 445 clicks, 94 Likes, 26 shares and 12 comments

Drive digital conversation among consumers about the brand relative to the event
* Twitter outreach resulted in 1,613 mentions and 4,521,921 potential impressions worldwide

Positioned the brand as innovative and culturally relevant
* Mullen spent 0.1 percent of what other brands paid for a commercial during the final episode (some spent up to $400,000); however, Adweek called Century 21’s initiative “The Only Worthy Brand Tie-In to the Breaking Bad Finale.”
* Creativity and Ad Age ranked the stunt among the top 10 for 2013

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Provide a brief biography of the person or persons who lead the team that created and carried out the nominated communications campaign (up to 125 words):

As the Chief Marketing Officer for CENTURY 21 Real Estate LLC, Bev Thorne leads the planning and execution of all marketing for the largest real estate franchise organization in the world including all consumer, broker and agent programs. With a heavy focus on strengthening the power and consistency of the brand across the globe, she leads a team that spans the full breadth of online and offline marketing media.

Thorne earned her MBA from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and has worked extensively in the areas of marketing, sales, branding and event management for both B2B and B2C. She and her husband have three children, and reside on a Christmas tree farm in Central New Jersey.