During its Las Vegas conference, Century 21 debuted “Color of Happiness,” a sequel to the franchisor’s hit 2024 commercial.
Nearly two years after ‘The Joy of Home,’ Century 21 is following up with another feel-good marketing campaign centered on the franchisor’s trademark gold-colored yard sign posts. Beyond being eye-catching, the brand said the golden hue represents C21’s commitment to excellence and the joy of ushering homebuyers and sellers through one of the most important moments of their lives.
The “Joy of Home” marketing strategy was key to launching C21’s three-year partnership with Major League Soccer, which generated more than 75 million media impressions for the franchisor through in-stadium signage, broadcast and streaming exposure. The 60-minute spot also scored a goal with consumers, with an independent survey revealing 80 percent of buyers and sellers were more likely to hire a C21 agent after seeing the ad.
Tori Keichinger
“Last year, we established joy as our emotional territory,” Tori Keichinger, C21 vice president and head of marketing, said in a prepared statement. “This year, we’re activating it in a more consumer-centric way. While working with our advertising agency and speaking with consumers, we learned that our gold yard sign posts were seen as iconic and so closely identified with our brand that the gold-colored post alone, even without our sign attached to it, prompted people to immediately associate the color with the Century 21 brand.”
“Our ‘legacy gold’ isn’t just a brand color; it’s a signal,” she added. “It marks the beginning of the homebuying or selling journey and represents the joy our agents help deliver every day. This campaign honors where we’ve been, while showing up for today’s consumer in a modern, meaningful way.”
In an interview with Inman, Keichinger reflected on the “Joy of Home” campaign, saying it spoke to consumers’ resilience amid one of the toughest markets in recent history.
Many of the headwinds present in October 2024 remain, she said, along with new macroeconomic and geopolitical challenges. However, she said C21 is still focused on showcasing the power of an experienced agent and how a home can underscore many important life milestones, such as a new job, marriage, starting a family or retirement.
“I think when people think about real estate, they think about it from a rational perspective of the headwinds that maybe our industry may be facing. But when they think about home, they think about the moments of joy that they experience with their family,” she said. “They think about those little tiny micro moments that are part of the fabric in between, and our Century 21 agents deliver that joy of home to the consumer.”
“And so we want to shine a spotlight on that brighter side of real estate that is always there, that we have always represented, regardless of what the market looks like, because that’s ultimately what home is all about,” she added. “We’ve seen every type of market through that over five decades. I think that’s what people want. They want optimism. They want to be reminded of what home represents.”
The new commercial, aptly named “Color of Happiness,” will be a keystone at the franchisor’s One21 Experience in Las Vegas this week. Attendees got an exclusive first look at the commercial, a sneak peek at revamped legacy gold yard signposts and panels, and a suite of customizable digital and print marketing assets.
“The stage itself is shaped as a giant yard sign with the screen as the panel. It [was] a real wow moment for agents,” Keichinger said. “We’re having fun, different activations and really bringing the joy of our brand, the joy of home, to life at this event. I mean, from every different place that you look, there are opportunities for our network to really see, feel and experience what they know, what they bring to their consumers.”
The CMO said C21 is also excited to enter the second year of its partnership with Major League Soccer and to strengthen its connection with the league’s 11.2 million fans.
“We really are reaching that next generation of homebuyers and sellers,” she said. “In fact, [Major League Soccer] recently released a Vision Insights decoder report stating that its fan base is 1.7 times more likely than the [the general population] to be in the market for a new home in the next six months.”
“Seeing the brand and the campaign come to life through that partnership gave us an opportunity to touch so many different formats, whether it was in-arena and getting to have that visibility in front of fans, whether it was through the halo effect of that digital streaming, or hosting more than a thousand members of our Century 21 network at games throughout the season,” she added. “So it really gave us the opportunity to continue to build brand exposure, but also deepen that connection with our brand.”
