Jeff Goldblum is appearing in an Apartments.com campaign as Brad Bellflower, the eccentric Silicon Valley caricature futurist behind the completely redesigned Apartments.com search site. Using a Web 5.0 look and feel to emphasize the benefits of the new Apartments.com experience, the integrated campaign thematically leverages the lofty tag line: “Change your apartment. Change the world.” to irreverently communicate the company’s commitment to meeting the needs of renters rather than catering primarily to landlords as rental websites have done in the past. Film elements in the campaign have begun with “Launch”, a 30 second television and 60 second digital commercial, to be followed up with seven unique spots. Digital and social are deeply woven into the launch and sustaining strategies for Apartments.com, including extensive investments in search and high-impact homepage activations across CNN, Gizmodo, Lifehacker, Yahoo and YouTube.
Apartments.com will launch the Brad Bellflower character across Facebook and Twitter, allowing Bellflower to flex his maverick muscles in the digital environments he knows best. Across each of these platforms, Bellflower will showcase his myriad worldly insights using meta native formats like image quotes, tweetstorms and screenshorts—following the style of other Silicon Valley titans.
Widespread out-of-home on bulletins and posters, rail/subway stations, wrapped trains, transit shelters and street kiosks will feature Brad Bellflower spouting Apartments.com truths — “We put the .com in apartments,” “Need a new place? Surf the apartminternet.” and “The Most Polygonal Search Online.”
“Like any good Silicon Valley maverick, Brad’s vision for his apartment rentals website is nothing less than to change the world. But hyperbole and parody aside, finding a great place to live or moving to a new area really does change your world,” said CoStar Group founder & CEO Andrew C. Florance.
Brad Bellflower promotes new features on Apartments.com, including custom search filters, a Polygon™ search tool that enables the user to define the area they want to search in by drawing the shape on a map, a Plan Commute tool that selects properties within a desired commute time between the rental location and a specified address, photos, video walk-throughs and detailed neighborhood information.
Credits
The Brad Bellflower campaign was developed at RPA by chief creative officer Joe Baratelli, group creative director Pat Mendelson, creative director/art director Hobart Birmingham, creative director/copywriter Perrin Anderson, associate creative director/art director Kirk Williams, associate creative director/copywriter Eric Haugen, senior copywriter David Sullivan and senior art director Rob Anton (OOH billboards Living Near Burritos, Duck and Finding and Apartment Faster), junior art director Josh McCrary and junior copywriter Earl Leechief (Digital), production officer Gary Paticoff, executive producer Selena Pizarro, TV producer Joshua Herbstman, assistant producer Grace Wang, digital producer Tiffany Chen, digital production coordinator Sarah Brown.
Filming was shot by director Tim Godsall via Anonymous Content with director of photography Bryan Newman, executive producers Eric Stern, Rick Jarjoura and SueEllen Clair, line producer Brady Vant Hull and production supervisor Timothy Kreis.
Editor was Steve Gandolfi at Cut + Run with managing director Michelle Eskin, executive producer Carr Schilling, head of production Amburr Farls and assistant editor Sean Fazende. Finishing was done at Jogger Studios by creative director David Parker.
Visual effects were produced at Framestore by senior executive producer James Razzall, producer Andrew McLintock, design director Sharon Lock, CG artist Mike Bain, 2D supervisor/2D lead Michael Ralla.
Transfer was produced at Company 3 by colourist Sean Coleman, executive producer Rhubie Jovanov and producer Alexis Guajardo.
Sound was produced at Lime Studios by executive producer Jessica Locke and sound engineer Dave Wagg. Music was produced at Barking Owl by creative director Kelly Bayett and head of production Whitney Fromholtz.
Photography by Michael Muller was retouched at Art Machine.
