CoStar’s Super Bowl spots kick off Homes.com marketing blitz

CoStar made good on the first major installment of what CEO Andy Florance recently teased as “the biggest marketing campaign in real estate history.” 

CoStar aired four commercials during the big game on Sunday, kicking off a $1 billion marketing blitz Florance told Inman will place the firm alongside some of this year’s biggest events. 

CoStar aired four commercials during the Super Bowl, where an average 30-second spot cost $7 million, according to the Wall Street Journal. Three of those featured Homes.com — with appearances by Dan Levy, Heidi Gardner and Lil Wayne — and the fourth saw Jeff Goldblum in his regular role pushing Apartments.com.

The ads come after CoStar released a video exclusively to agents, touting a goal to drive 80 billion impressions to Homes.com and to reach more than 90 percent of households.

Rivals Zillow, the dominant consumer platform, and Realtor.com both sat out of the national ad race during the big game. Opendoor ran a live ad that only aired in Atlanta, while the nine-minute spot was made available online.

CoStar’s marketing push is planned for broadcast television and beyond, hitting streaming services, podcasts, digital radio and more. The company also plans to advertise during other major events, such as the Oscars next month.

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The move to amp up awareness and marketing of Homes.com comes as CoStar attempts to unseat Zillow as the dominant residential real estate listings portal. Florence expressed a belief last week that CoStar’s residential business will surpass Zillow’s in the future.

In the second quarter, traffic to CoStar’s residential platform hit 84 million average monthly unique visitors, surpassing Realtor.com as the second-most trafficked residential platform after it surpassed Redfin earlier in the year.

— Holden Walter-Warner