• by Tanya Gazdik , March 26, 2014

Real estate company Century 21 will take over YouTube’s home page March 27 in honor of the unofficial start of the spring home buying season.

The takeover has an interesting, and depending on your perspective, potentially adorable twist: The brand will invite YouTube visitors to fall in “puppy love” with their dream home by showcasing eight adorable videos of furry little friends playing, running, sleeping -- and overall, just being downright lovable.

The date was chosen because more consumers searched for real estate online on March 27 last year than any other day in 2013.

“It is a warm and endearing feeling from which consumers can then begin their home search,” says Century 21 CMO Bev Thorne.

The Puppy Cam ties back to the company’s new series of “Based on a True Feeling” spots, in which clients liken the experience of working with Century 21 agents to being surrounded by puppies. The brand will also be posting stills, GIFS and videos to r/Aww on Reddit, urging users to visit the Puppy Cam on the YouTube home page.

This is the first time that Century 21 -- or any real estate company, for that matter -- have taken over the YouTube home page, Thorne says.

The company is expecting over 27 million visitors to the page.

“Knowing that consumers will already be looking for homes online, we hope to capitalize on the traffic,” Thorne tells Marketing Daily. “Proactively, we will display creative that runs the full width of the YouTube home page. Throughout the day, we will post about the takeover on Century 21 social channels and send out a system-wide communication via email.”

The project is a joint effort between Century 21’s internal marketing team and agency partners Mullen, Red Tettemer, and Likeable.

“The goal of this takeover is to position Century 21 in front of the maximum number of consumers involved in a home search,” Thorne says. “Knowing that there were more real estate searches on Google on March 27 last year than any other day, coinciding with the start of spring selling season, we wanted to capitalize on that search traffic to benefit the Century 21 system of sales professionals.”