• by Amy Corr , Staff Writer, December 9, 2013

If Century 21 sells houses the way it creates real-time marketing campaigns, then it’s safe to say that business is good.

Century 21 has impressed me with a pair of recent real-time marketing campaigns that highlight the real estate brand as both pop culturally relevant and quick to spin someone else’s news announcement into a marketing coup for itself.

The first campaign coincided with the launch of Twitter’s IPO. Century 21 launched a not-so-subtle video that never mentions Twitter by name but recommends that the brand upgrade to a bigger birdhouse to reflect its current success.

The video showcases an ideal six-birdroom mansion with all the necessary amenities like numerous bird baths, king-sized nests and zero windows for safety purposes. The video ends with the voiceover encouraging Twitter to contact its Century 21 rep to make the mansion its “Home Tweet Home.” Century 21 also ran shorter videos on Vine and Twitter, each using the hashtag #HomeTweetHome.

The company’s next real-time marketing campaign took place shortly after that small announcement about Amazon.com testing drone delivery service to its customers. Not missing a beat, Century 21 launched a video to promote its C21 Delivery Landing Pad, an ideal accoutrement to Amazon’s PrimeAir.

Homeowners can customize their landing pad to include flashing lights and non-slip surfaces and potentially add market value to their home.

“Writer Brian Tierney walked into my office Monday afternoon, floating light bulb over his head, after seeing all the widespread coverage about Bezos' idea,” said Tim Cawley, SVP/group creative director, Mullen, the agency behind the campaigns. “With all this talk of ‘home delivery,’ we figured we could do our own spin on the ‘home’ end of things for Century 21.”

The “60 Minutes” piece aired on Sunday, and Century 21 launched its video Thursday morning.

What will Century 21’s next campaign include? Not even the brand’s strategists know just yet.

“We look for opportunities to showcase how our agents are smarter, bolder, faster,” said Bev Thorne, CMO of Century 21. “We can’t say what’s next for our social creative just yet. That’s the beauty of real-time marketing.”