Real estate company Century 21 launched a mobile gaming campaign on April 12 to promote its mobile app. The company worked with digital agency Appssavvy on the initiative, which is a part of game developer Ngmoco’s We City mobile game.
The campaign incentivizes players to interact with the Century 21 brand for in-game virtual currency. Consumers who play the city-building simulation game can receive in-game currency for including any of three Century 21-branded buildings in their virtual city.
The company is also rewarding consumers with virtual currency if they respond to in-game calls to action. These include downloading Century 21’s mobile app, downloading a video advertising Century 21’s real estate agents, or completing a survey.
The survey asks consumers “general questions about real estate and some questions about Century 21, so that’ll help us [gauge] the perception that this segment has about our brand,” said John Henry, VP of brand management at Century 21. He said that the survey does not include any opt-ins for future communications.
Century 21 is not collecting consumers’ personal information, but is measuring mobile app and video downloads for the campaign, said Henry.
He added that mobile gamers are mostly male and in the 25- to 44-year-old range. Henry said Century 21 is targeting this demographic because it’s “a group that is resistant to traditional messages.”
“We wanted to make sure that we positioned the Century 21 brand with this segment of the population that does everything on their mobile phones, from watching programming to playing games to Facebooking – you name it,” said Henry. “We want to make sure that we position the Century 21 brand in this very popular game as a very hip, very cool brand.”
