• by Aaron Baar , June 11, 2015

Bad neighbors are as good a reason to move as any, particularly if they’re loud, obnoxious and out-of-tune. As the summer moving season heats up, Century 21 is looking to crown the world’s worst garage band (and give their possible neighbors a hand looking for a new place to live).

“In our efforts to surprise and delight our followers in digital media, we’re looking for edgy content,” Matt Gentile, director of social media for Century 21, tells Marketing Daily. “With the summer selling season upon us, it gives our brokers and members a way to connect with customers.”

Via a digital advertising campaign, the brand is looking to crown the World’s Worst Garage Band from four contenders,. The bands — with names such as Superpowerless and Testostowurm — hail from locales such as Leeds, U.K., and Lock Haven, Pa. Despite the dubious honor, there was no shortage of bands interested in a little promotion, Gentile says.

“As they say in marketing, ‘All publicity is good publicity,’” he says. “We gave [the bands] some minimal payment to participate, and one of them was very excited. It was their first paying gig.”

Century 21 is rolling out videos of the bands performing in their natural garage habitats through the week. At the end of the video, a simple message appears: “If you live within earshot, we’ll help you move immediately.”

The brand is making the videos available to their affiliated agents, and encouraging them to promote the contest (and the bands, perhaps) through their own social networks. Century 21 is also promoting the videos through its corporate social channels and some paid advertising on Facebook, Gentile says.

Consumers, meanwhile, are encouraged to cast their votes for their “favorite” contender via social media using the hashtag #WorldsWorstGarageBand. As with many of its digital campaigns, corporate executives will monitor the response to determine whether its worth repeating.

“We look at it as a lab experiment, and see if it catches fire,” Gentile says. “If response is good, maybe we’ll make it an annual event.”