Gone in 30 Seconds

I can hardly believe what I read this morning in Inman News.

Century 21 announces that they are spending real money on TV ads.  You must be kidding me.  Tell me this isn't true!  What do they think they will accomplish with this ad spend anyway? 

They say the campaign is  intended to to announce to consumers that C-21 agents are now well trained.  "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.  

Really.  What were the C-21 agents before the ad campaign?  Untrained?

And are you sure you are able to make the claim that ALL of the C-21 agents have been fully trained at this time?  Do you really think anyone would believe such a thing in real estate?

They also say that all of the media spend will be measured carefully, ""We will track closely the (return on investment) from all our spend . . . " Thorne further stated. 

Really.  How do you closely measure the leads that come from a 30 second TV ad?

Century 21 is also very proud to announce that the campaign will run on this year's Super Bowl.  Really.  I can recall running a real estate franchise ad on the Super Bowl as well.

It was in 1992 when I served as the head of marketing for a major franchise company.  I later called the entire experience and return, "gone in 30 seconds".  To be specific, a total wasted investment back then of $1.2MM for a 30 second TV spot on the Super Bowl.  Today?  More than double that figure.

I thought then - how many viewers are missing the 30 second we just bought after the coin toss as they went to the kitchen to refresh their beer and use the "room down the hall to the left"?

You know the crazy thing about all this is that it is the C-21 brokers that are the ones who are paying for these TV ads, not Century 21.  I wonder what the brokers really think of such waste in times when just keeping the doors to the brokerage company open is a real challenge.

And what is the message being sent for what now is likely to be a $2.5MM investment (ad placement plus ad production costs for a 30 second spot) on a Super Bowl ad?  Work with Century 21 agents to buy and sell homes because they're educated?

I wonder how much advertising could be purchased on an online media site for the same money targeted more appropriately at selling C-21 listings?  You know, the kind of efforts that help generate revenues for local brokers by exposing listings - the product - to real buyers online. 

This versus advertising the C-21 brand to do what is very obvious - to simply sell more C-21 franchises.

Reading further into the Inman article I noted that a group of the Century 21 brokers have already weighed-in with some kind of class action complaint about the company.  What a shame.  What a lost opportunity. 

And what an unfortunate sign of the times for traditional real estate franchising business models.

As it relates to Century 21's former CEO, Tom Kunz's decision to pull the plug on TV ads in 2009.  You were so right on my friend.  Maybe, just maybe your wisdom to make such a decision had something to do with the fact that you were a real broker with a real brokerage company that understood what it takes to keep the doors open in tough economic times.

My opinion.  Spending precious ad dollars that are collected by a franchise from its brokers on  "hyper-macro" TV advertising just in time for everything meaningful in the business to be hyper-local - makes no sense at all.

At the rate of nearly $90,000 per second for the Supper Bowl ad I wish C-21 a lot of luck demonstrating that this strategy was anything more than simply another $2.5MM spent on TV advertising by a real estate franchise that is - gone in 30 seconds.