Powered by

Century21.com Slaps On A Fresh Coat Of Paint Nov 3, 2008

The Challenge Like many of the houses that Century 21 sells, the real estate giant saw the need for some serious renovations to its Web site. Considering the fact that 84% of consumers who use the Internet to search for their next home, Century 21 knew it had to enhance the online experience for buyers and sellers alike. The Plan Century21.com was relaunched in May with streamlined navigation and an advanced map tool to transform the way its 2 million monthly unique visitors search for properties at its site. The Web site incorporates Web 2.0 property search tools such as interactive mapping with drawing tools to select search areas, slide shows and online video, and sliders that users can click and drag to set search parameters. In its standard list-based search of properties, the site allows users to click on a "listing preview" button for a given property that displays a miniature slide show of that property. Users can click on left and right arrows to display additional photos. To support the launch, the company created a YouTube channel where agents designed virtual open houses. Sellers and agents competed for $21,000 in prizes. To advertise it, Century 21 conducted a home page takeover and ad buy that generated 60 million impressions. Direct mail supported. The Results The average length of visit increased by 13% for the three months after the site was relaunched compared to the three months prior. More importantly, the lead to visitor ratio (% of visitors that submitted a "contact an agent/office" form via Century21.com ) increased 7%. The YouTube contest resulted in 82,000 channel views, 95,000 unique visits and 114,000 page views. People spent an average of 2:36 minutes watching the

Page 1 of 2Century21.com Slaps On A Fresh Coat Of Paint

11/4/2008http://brandweek.printthis.clickability.com/pt/cpt?action=cpt&title=Century21.com+Slaps...

? 2008 Nielsen Business Media, Inc. All rights reserved.

channel. It also received press coverage in USA Today, the Boston Globe and other news outlets. Links referenced within this article Find this article at: http://www.brandweek.com/bw/content_display/current-issue/e3i397aa99d2932d77d06e54b149a5bb08a

Uncheck the box to remove the list of links referenced in the article. gfedcb

Page 2 of 2Century21.com Slaps On A Fresh Coat Of Paint

11/4/2008http://brandweek.printthis.clickability.com/pt/cpt?action=cpt&title=Century21.com+Slaps...