Coldwell Banker “Dream” Campaign
In the residential real estate industry, the issue of “low inventory” (i.e. more people looking to buy than those willing to sell) had been a lurking problem since before the pandemic. By 2022, this had driven home prices to all-time highs, but Coldwell Banker’s 100,000 agents depended on a larger quantity of sales. Our team developed a digital-forward transformation of the brand and a cutting-edge campaign that encouraged homeowners to consider the financial and lifestyle benefits of moving somewhere new, and to cash in on the value of their homes with Coldwell Banker.
Art Direction: Carly Sorensen
Digital Lead: Chelsey Siltanen
Marquee Campaign Video
Our top-level video executions, titled “Dream,” combined an emotional and rational appeal to introduce the new look and powerful functionality we implemented on Coldwell Banker’s site. :60, :30, and :15 versions ran on March Madness broadcasts, streaming, and YouTube. I wrote the scripts and spearheaded the production (along with Carly Sorensen), from locations to editing to developing a custom music track.
Campaign Architecture
In addition to the broader communications, my team and I set out to execute the most comprehensive and tactical campaign in Coldwell Banker’s history to diversify our messaging, explain the new tools and programs we created, reach home sellers at various points of the funnel, and leverage the grassroots power of the brand’s agent network.
Website Redesign
Our team revolutionized the web destination for Coldwell Banker, re-positioning the century-old brand to offer a clean and useful experience that could rival Zillow and Redfin while adding even more utility to home sellers. I handled the writing for all of the redesigned pages of the site.
Move Meter™ Development
The most unique and engaging tool we ideated and implemented on the new site was the Move Meter. It gives users the ability to input any two cities, and compare them based on home prices, taxes, weather, schools, and more. Our digital lead accomplished the herculean task of sourcing and visualizing all the necessary data. The tool increased time-on-site severalfold and collected leads from visitors considering a move.
CB Estimate™ Development
Before our efforts, Coldwell Banker’s website did not have the functionality for users to input their address and receive an instant estimate on their home’s value, something that next-gen competitors offered. We harnessed big data to integrate this into the new site and it became a powerful method for obtaining seller leads.
CB Guides Concept
With Coldwell Banker’s brand tagline of “Guiding people home since 1906,” we set out to own the concept of “guidance” in powerful new ways. We proposed the creation of a Masterclass-style content marketing engine in which Coldwell Banker’s top agents share their real estate expertise through slick videos and social-friendly articles.
Move Meter™ Match Up NFL Campaign
With the success of the Move Meter in engaging site visitors, we leveraged a media buy on Thursday Night Football to further promote the tool in a bespoke way. For each of the five games in which Coldwell Banker ran ads, we developed a unique :15 that demonstrated the use of the Move Meter, comparing the home cities of the teams competing in that night’s game.
Move Meter™ Marquee Video
I wrote, produced, and music-supervised a longer Move Meter video that further explained the tool to audiences, set to a track by Spoon.
Social
I wrote and creative directed dozens of social executions that supported the campaign, from the emotional, brand level of the “Dream” theme to the tactical level of driving people to check their home value with the CB Estimate tool. This included video, gif, and static ads versioned for a variety of social sizes. We also amplified the campaign with a suite of customizable ads for use by the Coldwell Banker network, since the brand’s individual agents and offices ran their own socials, too.
Subcampaign :15 Video
I wrote and produced eight additional short video ads for YouTube and streaming, each focusing on a use case or specific aspect of the new site’s experience (Move Meter, CB Estimate, and the Seller’s Assurance Program). This kept the campaign fresh throughout the long flight.