CENTURY 21: Bringing Home

The GoldRick Davidson President & CEO, Century 21 Real Estate, LLC, and members of the U.S. Women’s Soccer Team

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The real estate company with the

largest sales force in the world has

been blazing a bold path lately, sig-

naling its support for the health of

the housing market and its own agents this

spring with its advertising. Beginning with its

Super Bowl commercial and continuing with

its upcoming ads during the Summer Olym-

pics, Century 21® real estate has added

to its visibility by sponsoring the men’s and

women’s u.S. Soccer teams for this year and

next. However, these big marketing moves are

only a part of what this global real estate gi-

ant has been up to. In this exclusive interview,

company President and CeO rick Davidson

tells us more.

64 July 2012 RISMedia’s REAL ESTATE

Rick Davidson President & CEO, Century 21 Real Estate, LLC, and members of the U.S. Women’s Soccer Team

cover story

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RISMedia’s REAL ESTATE July 2012 65

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Maria Patterson: CENTURY 21 Real Estate has been making some big-time moves with ad-vertising and marketing. What else has the brand been up to?Rick Davidson: We have taken our marketing up to the next level with initiatives such as the program integration with our 40th birthday celebration and TLC’s “Cake Boss,” our Su-per Bowl commercial, advertising during the Preakness and Bel-mont Stakes horse races and the Olympics this sum-mer. However, marketing is the most visible part of a much broader and deeper shift across the CENTURY 21® System.

We’ve been focused on rebuild-ing our foundation and momentum from the inside out. We have accel-erated our innovations throughout the System to empower our brokers and agents to be the best they can be. That means everything from first-class training, high-quality ser-vice and the development of new platforms and tools that are hyper-efficient and financially savvy.

From senior leadership to opera-tions and marketing, to our distrib-uted service teams, we’ve launched our own internal revolution. We’re throwing out the old ways of think-ing to be sure that we better service our business partners and, in turn,

help them better service their customers. We’re trans-

forming the brand to de-liver a higher standard of service, to build on a strong foundation of “CENTURY 21: The Gold

Standard” in ways that are SMARTER. BOLDER. FAST-

ER.SM We’re now looking forward to the next big steps for our company, and the future looks bright.

MP: Speaking of the future, can you tell me what your plans are for the future of the CENTURY 21 System?RD: Well, in the past 18 months, we have made significant strides as an organization to reposition the brand within the industry and with the consumer through our marketing campaign. In the process, we have maintained our leadership position in brand awareness for the 11th con-

secutive year, and we remain a lead-er in consideration for future real estate transactions among active real estate consumers.* So we’re going to keep that momentum go-ing and keep firing on all cylinders—both internally and externally.

From a marketing standpoint, we are the official real estate sponsor of U.S. Soccer. This is really exciting, as it resonates globally and on soc-cer fields in most communities. And we’re advertising in the upcoming 2012 Olympic Games. It’s going to be a big back half of the year for us!

Most importantly, we are focused on growth. To build on the natural advantages inherent in being the world’s largest real estate franchise and real estate sales organization, we convened a Global Task Force comprised of our top master fran-chise owners throughout the globe. The task force has developed action plans for the global integration of our brand across three major areas:

- Technology- Global Referral System- Global Branding

GoldCENTURY 21: Bringing Home The

by Maria Patterson

* Source: 2011 Ad Tracking Study, Millward Brown

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66 July 2012 RISMedia’s REAL ESTATE

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In the U.S., we developed and deployed a Service With Aligned Targets (SWAT) team approach that en-ables our nationwide field support team of more than 60 business consultants to most effectively answer the needs of our franchisees in critical areas like mergers and acquisitions, operational reviews, lead generation and conversion, recruiting and social media marketing.

Everything we are doing as a global organization is designed to drive more business to our franchisees and continue to improve upon the service provided to the consumer.

MP: Why is the world’s largest real estate compa-ny so committed to growth? And, why now?RD: Real estate is on the rise. Consumer confidence, employment figures, as well as overall positive news in the U.S. housing market, suggest that the dream of homeownership is appropriate for many. For indepen-dent brokers and agents who have been looking for smart growth, the CENTURY 21 System offers excep-tional training, tools, systems and marketing. We give them the tools to help them grow. So when strong, smart, forward-thinking, quick-on-their-feet independent professionals decide to make a move, we want them thinking of us.

The strength of our brand begins with our local mar-ket affiliates and their agents. It is their experience and knowhow that fuels our global network. They matter most. The more savvy entrepreneurs we have operating CENTURY 21 franchises around the country, the more op-portunity this represents for the entire CENTURY 21 Sys-tem. So we’ll do whatever it takes to make sure the best of the best find a home within the CENTURY 21 System.

Internationally speaking, from Prague to Paris and Sao Paolo to Singapore, the CENTURY 21 brand is well-known and respected. Our goal is to continue expanding even more, strengthening the brand on a global scale to enable us to meet the needs of consumers in markets throughout the globe.

We have a big vision for the future of CENTURY 21 Real Estate. Our strategy is in place and we are poised for growth. Our company’s mission is “to provide best-in-class brokerage services to all who aspire to buy and sell real estate anywhere in the world.” We have no time to slow down.

MP: What are some of the opportunities of leading a global real estate organization?RD: Transacting real estate is no longer confined to city-to-city or state-to-state referrals. Our worldwide net-work consists of more than 100,000 real estate pro-fessionals and more than 7,250 offices in both mature and emerging markets. International referral business represents an incredible opportunity for CENTURY 21 agents to transact real estate from country to country and continent to continent.

According to the National Association of REALTORS® International Profile of Home Buying Activity, total pur-chases by foreign or foreign-born buyers represented $82 billion. This represents a tremendous opportunity for the CENTURY 21 System, given that we boast the largest global footprint of any real estate sales orga-nization with 1,000-plus offices more than our closest competitor. Through our global network, we are serving the needs of homebuyers and sellers in 73 countries and territories worldwide.

CENTURY 21 International Masters: What does the CENTURY 21 Global Network mean to you?

CENTURY 21 Real Estate of Japan Ltd. Mr. Kazunari Mitsukawa, President and CEOCENTURY 21 Japan was founded in 1983. Today, we are the third largest real estate brokerage group in Japan with more than 800 franchise offices. Through the power of the CENTURY 21® global net-work, we aim to achieve the No. 1 position in Japan.

CENTURY 21 CanadaDon Lawby, PresidentBy combining our innovative technology with the international recognition of the CENTURY 21 brand, our sales professionals are able to provide exceptional service to clients no mat-ter where they are in the world.

CENTURY 21 BeneluxMathieu Verwilghen, General ManagerCustomer service is the most important part of our business. With the CENTURY 21® System, we are able to ensure homebuyers and sellers receive the quality service they expect while exposing their property to a global network of more than 100,000 real estate professionals.

“Soccer is the world’s sport, and its growing popularity in the U.S. provides our sales professionals with a great opportunity to sponsor a local team and engage with the communities they serve.”

– Rick Davidson, President & CEO, Century 21 Real Estate, LLC

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Through our sponsorship of U.S. Soccer and our planned advertising in the 2012 Olympics, we have de-veloped opportunities for our global partners to take advantage of the positive momentum we have built with our Smarter. Bolder. Faster.SM campaign. Soccer is the world’s sport, and its growing popularity in the U.S. pro-vides our sales professionals with a great opportunity to sponsor a local team and engage with the commu-nities they serve. You’ve heard people talk about the growing influence of soccer moms; well, this campaign is targeted to attract the attention of this influential group.

The CENTURY 21 System is thriving internationally. The innovation and entrepreneurial success of our glob-al business partners is incredible. The best part about being a global organization is the cross-cultural learn-ing opportunities. We now are able to share best prac-tices throughout the franchise system. For instance, CENTURY 21 Japan may have insights about mobility that inform our mobility decisions in the U.S. In turn, CENTURY 21 France is developing online marketing so-lutions that may influence CENTURY 21 Mexico. To me, that is the most exciting opportunity for the CENTURY 21 System; the ability to learn from each other and adopt best practices to benefit our business partners and the consumer. This is one of the key differentiating advantages of belonging to a global network and a part of what separates CENTURY 21 Real Estate from our competitors.

MP: As a company that prides itself on innova-tion, what has the CENTURY 21 brand been doing to stay in front of technology?RD: Advances in communication and technology have created a global economy where we can share not only photos with friends on Facebook, but we can text listing details or tweet a video to a customer’s smartphone anywhere in the world within seconds. Your buyer and seller may be continents apart, but through the CEN-TURY 21 System and today’s technology, making that connection is easier than ever.

To further our technology edge, we have developed a series of strategic initiatives designed to support our brokers and agents while enhancing the experience for their customers. Beginning with CENTURY 21 Lead-RouterSM, our leads management system automatically captures client information, converts it to voicemail and sends it directly to our sales associates for immediate follow-up, so interested homebuyers can receive a re-sponse within minutes. This has been an incredible tool for our sales professionals to demonstrate the CEN-TURY 21 brand value proposition.

Another major innovation is our proprietary tool, The Golden Ruler. Through this dynamic reporting tool, our professionals are able to provide an instant analysis of consumer views and leads resulting from the expanded visibility of CENTURY 21 home listings, which typically appear on hundreds of real estate industry and aggre-gator websites. Golden Ruler provides our agents with a

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reporting tool that offers great clarity with regard to the effectiveness of our online marketing.

The CENTURY 21 Showcase Advantage Listing Pro-gram offers our brokers and agents significant price advantages when they list on five of the nation’s lead-ing real estate sites: REALTOR.com®, Zillow.com®, Trulia.com, Homes.com and HomeFinder.com®. This program, subsidized through CENTURY 21 Real Estate, showcases CENTURY 21® properties and enables our System members to deliver exceptional value to their customers and increased exposure for their properties.

Recently, we announced that we are developing a state-of-the-art marketing platform that includes fully integrated customer relationship management (CRM). The new marketing platform will empower CENTURY 21 brokers with an integrated office dashboard that will be fully integrated into our intranet, 21Online, to create a seamless experience for offices and agents.

Of course, our major point of entry for consumers re-mains CENTURY21.com. In 2012, the website received several major enhancements, including:

8�Smart search, which empowers visitors to type as

few as the first three letters of the community they are researching and see instant results.

8�A state-of-the-art interactive mapping tool that lets consumers see the properties visually and shows various data points in relation to the properties. Con-sumers can choose from a wide variety of points of interest, such as schools, places of worship, restau-rants, etc.

8�The availability of Real Estate Networking (REN) list-ings. REN listings provide a unified search experience across listings from various brands, including Coldwell Banker, ERA, Better Homes and Gardens, RE/MAX and Realty Executives and more than 370 MLSs.

The enhanced CENTURY21.com experience has yield-

ed an impressive increase in visitors to the site. Accord-ing to metrics recently produced by comScore, traffic to the CENTURY 21 website is up 46 percent year-over-year through May 2012. The increased traffic has re-sulted in increased leads for our System members. MP: I understand the CENTURY 21 brand now has its own station on Pandora Radio. Did you pick out the songs on the playlist?RD: It’s true, we do have our own customized CENTURY 21 station on Pandora Radio. However, I did not select the playlist! CENTURY 21 Radio features a mix of con-

temporary music and includes on-air advertisements for the brand, giving the CENTURY 21 brand 100 per-cent share of voice during the entire listening session. The branded channel also has a custom skin so that if you’re playing it on a laptop, at an open house or in an office, the web page appears with the company’s brand-ed messages displayed. Our brokers and agents love it!

We have been very busy in the mobile and social space. Our goal is to provide consumers with informa-tion when they want it and where they want it. In fact, the CENTURY 21 mobile application is available across all major smartphone platforms and on the iPad.

Through YouTube, we now have the ability to feature videos for every one of our agents’ listings. We see video as a major media opportunity as more and more consumers watch videos online and on-the-go.

MP: You mentioned higher standards. What are some of the things CENTURY 21 Real Estate is doing to help its agents meet these standards?RD: Within the CENTURY 21 System, we are raising the bar through continuing education. The fuel that drives our company forward is our agents. It is the quality of their character and their commitment to providing ex-ceptional service to their community that define the CENTURY 21 brand.

As advocates for the industry and for the consumer, we have developed an award-winning learning platform to encourage as many of our new agents, as well as our more seasoned professionals, to not only complete the required educational requirements of their state as-sociations, but to expand their continuing education to include coursework that assures them they can meet the needs of today’s consumers. Our field-based learn-ing team is dedicated to ensuring that CENTURY 21 brokers and agents are well-prepared.

From the Certified Distressed Property Expert des-ignation to becoming a certified ePro (Technology Tool Professional), learning is the key to improved perfor-mance and professional advancement.

The one thing that remains constant in this indus-try and in life is change. As an organization, we have embraced change as an opportunity to challenge the status quo, to take an already iconic brand and make it even better. Today, CENTURY 21 sales professionals around the globe are primed to take our brand value proposition forward to consumers in ways unimaginable just 10 years ago. We are CENTURY 21 and our time is now! RE

For more information, please visit www.Century21.com.

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