Every year, multi-national brands such as Pepsi, Pizza Hut and Coca Cola spend a ton of cash and marketing efforts to unveil their 30-second ads in the Super Bowl games. Over the years, the commercials have been whole new events in themselves, with many viewers anticipating to see them aside from the actual game.
This Sunday, Super Bowl 50 will see real estate giants showing their ads for the first time in 21 years. Leading the pack is Century 21 Real Estate, an international firm, which is said to be spending a serious amount of money for a short spot during the third quarter of the game.
"In 2011 we celebrated our 40th anniversary. Prior to last year's Super Bowl is when we decided we really wanted our full year celebration to culminate in something big and we view this as something big," Bev Thorne, chief marketing officer of Century 21, told Forbes.
Indeed, a 30-second spot in the big game can be described as something big. According to Inman.com, such placement is priced at a record-high of $5 million. But the payoff could be huge as well. Last year, Super Bowl reached an average of 111 million viewers and this year, 200 million people are expected to tune in.
Another real estate company jumping on the Super Bowl wagon is Detroit-based lender Quicken Loans, which will be running a full 60-second ad during the first half of the game. Quicken Loans is promoting its new Rocket Mortgage program, an online mortgage application aimed at millennials that promises approved loans in less than eight minutes.
Apartments.com will also be running its 60-second ad nationwide during the game's second commercial break. The company's $100-million campaign features "Jurassic Park" actor Jeff Goldblum and tons of pop culture.
Though this is the first time Apartment.com will be on the Super Bowl, the online company has already experienced great results for their marketing strategies last year.
"It's definitely not for the faint of heart," admitted Becky Carr, chief marketing officer of CoStar Group, said. "But the campaign increased the number of unique visitors to our website by three times, so we correlate the investment in our marketing to the revenue it's driven."
SoFi, a relatively newcomer in the real estate industry, has also booked 30-second nationwide spots during the first half of the game.
Guaranteed Rate, the country's eighth-largest mortgage lender, will air 30-seconders in four major regions during a commercial break just before the third quarter. Realtor.com will also air two different ads -- one 15 seconds long and the other 30 seconds -- nationally during the pre-game. Their ads also show much star power, featuring actress Elizabeth Banks.
"What's great about this audience is the viewing typically takes place in the home," Century 21's Thorne explained. "And it's also a great jump off for the Spring [home] selling season."
Watch some of these featured ads below:
