American market-leading property portal Zillow has this week revealed two new TV adverts for its services to capitalize on the brand's newfound spot in the national zeitgeist following the February skit by comedy show Saturday Night Live which poked lighthearted fun at the portal.
Together with creative agency Fig, Zillow seems to have taken inspiration from animated children's stories for the first slot of the 'To Move is To Grow' campaign in which the viewer follows a little girl who is accompanied by some animated friends on her scary journey to a new home:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dPEx81fjZic
The second slot features a protagonist named Susan who consults with a boardroom full of different versions of herself about whether to move house and ultimately comes to the decision that moving isn't so hard as Zillow can help with every part of the process.
While the first slot is clearly pathos based and designed to tug on the heartstrings (which is very much the trend for portal TV ads), the second is more product-focused and is designed to paint Zillow as an end-to-end solution for all things property related.
In other Zillow news today, founders Rich Barton and Lloyd Frink have appeared on the Forbes Billionaire List for the first time this week following what has been a bumper few months for the company. 53-year-old current CEO Barton, who also co-founded travel site Expedia, is reported to be worth some $2.2 billion while Zillow President and Executive Chairman Frink is reported to be worth $1.4 billion. For his part, Barton has signed up to Bill Gates's Giving Pledge whereby wealthy individuals commit to donating a majority of their wealth to charity.
The real estate company's share price hit highs of $200 from a low point of $26 in March of 2020 and the year also saw new record revenue, EBITDA and traffic on the back of a buoyant domestic housing market.