Real estate data giant CoStar Group Inc. (NASDAQ: CSGP) is rolling out a massive new marketing campaign for Sunday’s Super Bowl, with multiple TV spots for its Richmond-based Homes.com brand.
CEO Andy Florance told Inman on Thursday the cost of his company’s marketing push, which will extend throughout the year and include commercials during March’s Academy Awards and June’s NBA Finals, radio spots and more, rounds up to $1 billion.
The company, which says it will be Richmond's biggest tech company once its downtown hub opens, is no stranger to big marketing expenses. It rolled out a $250 million campaign in 2020 for its Apartments.com brand starring actor Jeff Goldblum in the role of Brad Bellflower, a character it debuted in ads nearly a decade ago.
Florance called this year’s ad push the “biggest marketing campaign ever run by any real estate organization in the entire world,” according to the report.
CoStar brands will feature in four different commercials during Sunday’s Super Bowl broadcast on CBS — three for its Homes.com brand and another for Apartments.com, according to Inman. CEO Andy Florance even appears in the ad posted above (he's the one wearing glasses). The cost of a 30-second spot on CBS during this year’s game is around $7 million, according to Reuters. And that’s just for airtime. Producing the commercials costs additional millions, and CoStar has recruited the likes of actor Daniel Levy, “Saturday Night Live” cast member Heidi Gardner and rapper Lil’ Wayne for its Homes.com ads. Inman said Goldblum is also set to return.
It's making a big push for its Homes.com brand to catch Zillow as the country’s top online real estate portal. CoStar, which for a long time focused on the commercial real estate sector, has moved into the residential market in the last decade. It purchased Apartments.com in 2014 and then acquired Homesnap and Homes.com in 2020 and 2021, respectively. Florance told Inman that Homes.com is looking at 80 billion impressions in 2024 and has made efforts to make the site more friendly for real estate agents than its competitors.
CoStar, which is nearing a deal to move its headquarters from downtown D.C. to Arlington County, has 5,600 employees and reported $2.18 billion in revenue in 2022. Its shares closed trading Thursday at $81.77. Its stock is up 7.89% in the last 12 months.
