Trulia's $45 Million 'Moment'

Trulia, the eight-year-old San Francisco-based online real estate marketplace is kicking off its first national advertising and marketing campaign. The company has earmarked $45 million for the effort.

The launch of the campaign follows its selection earlier this year of Interpublic Group’s FCB as its creative ad agency. Sibling shop Initiative was awarded media duties.

Called “Moment of Trulia,” the campaign’s launch is timed to the beginning of house-hunting season which runs from March to early fall, according to Kira Wampler, who recently joined the company as CMO.

The campaign is designed to demonstrate how Trulia's apps and mobile products help consumers get answers to the many questions they have when buying a home.  When the online service helps clarify a home-buying (or selling)  issue for a user that is what the company calls a “Moment of Trulia.”

Buying or selling a home can be a “daunting process,” said Wampler. The campaign is intended to illustrate that “we’re an ally and a partner in this process.”

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The TV spot debuting Monday is called “Look,” and it opens with a couple on their living room couch browsing homes for sale on a tablet via the Trulia app (“Trulia says the schools are excellent.”) That’s followed by several other scenes of the couple using their mobile phones to browse listings. Fast-forward, their bid is accepted and the ad’s narrator intones, “That moment when it all comes together. That’s your moment of Trulia.” That’s followed by a call to action to download the free Trulia app.

The campaign’s media strategy will focus heavily on mobile and direct response, in both online and offline channels.

 “Our campaign has two key goals,” said Micky Onvural, Trulia’s senior director of consumer marketing.  “First, to drive performance, especially in mobile acquisition and second, to build a trusted brand.”  

According to the company’s research, 92% of prospective home buyers use the Internet as part of their search. And 40% of the home buying market is considering a move at any given time.

Wampler says that Trulia is at an “inflection point.” The firm has figured out how to monetize its product (fees are paid by real estate agents) and there is no “clear winner in the category… Now is the time to juice it up.”

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