In 2000, the online apartment guide market was becoming saturated with new players. Apartments.com, the number two player, was looking to distinguish itself, especially among
college students -heavy Internet users who are making the transition from dorm rooms to professional lifestyles.
PR21 was called in to create a major national media campaign to generate more awareness of the online apartment guide. The team decided a contest for the messiest college
apartment would offer the perfect human interest angle to foster widespread media interest. The catch: the contest would have to be planned and implemented in a four-month
timeframe in order to allow Apartments.com to announce a winner before the end of the school year and the beginning of moving season.
The team first conducted a little down and dirty research with waste management trade magazines in order to develop a "Messy Fact Sheet" to pique reporters' interest. They
distributed the contest announcement to college newspapers and radio stations, national wire services, radio stations and general lifestyle editors. The winner would receive
$10,000 in rent and $2,000 in e-bucks to spend at sister site auctions.com.
Color photos and 250-word essays began rolling in with images of shattered toilets, mounds of cigarette butts, dirty laundry, two-year-old cartons of milk and pet rats. The
winner caught judges' attention with his graphic description of the powerful stench emanating from an unknown source somewhere on his coffee table.
Over the course of four weeks, PR21 distributed releases to the media, pitched the finalists and winner to TV talk and lifestyle shows, snagged exclusive coverage of the winner
announcement on "Extra! Entertainment Magazine Show," and created and distributed a VNR highlighting the extreme messiness of the winner's apartment.
The campaign struck a nerve with the media - the VNR was picked up by 245 television stations, and the story aired more than 280 times across the country with a total
viewership of 25,270,716. A radio tour generated 5,047,400 hits, and total print and broadcast hits were at 37,371,157. The contest was mentioned at least once in every story, and
at least 50% of stories conveyed at least one Apartments.com brand message.
(Christy Frederick, PR21, 312/396-9732)
Client: Apartments.com
Agency: PR21, Chicago
Campaign Timeframe: 4 months
Campaign Budget: $63,048.45