Opendoor navigated marketing in a tight housing market by going after boomers

Opendoor has a compelling marketing proposition for homeowners—it will buy their properties almost instantly—but success depends on a steady pool of potential sellers. Lately, though, that has been a challenge with stubbornly high mortgage rates. In reaction to the tight market, Opendoor had to get creative with its marketing, and in doing so, it identified an audience of motivated sellers: baby boomers who are looking to downsize. See Ad Age’s 2024 Breakout Brand Leaders and Work here To reach boomers, Opendoor set up a clever in-person marketing activation at the Rose Bowl stadium on UCLA’s campus during Family Weekend last October, building an oversized bird’s nest to catch the eye of “empty nesters” coming to visit their college-age children. The nest was accompanied by a “for sale” sign that read: “Parents can leave the nest too.” “Obviously, as a brand that people sell their homes to, we needed to find a way to cut through in one of the worst housing markets in 40 years,” said David Corns, chief marketing officer at Opendoor. Opendoor worked with the agency Alma on the activation. About 60% of the offers Opendoor makes on homes go to boomers, Corns said. Also, brand awareness and consideration reached all-time highs in the quarter following the Rose Bowl stunt, Corns said. The boomer-centric campaign was just one of the ways that Opendoor has used quirky insights and live events in its marketing. During this year’s Super Bowl, Opendoor bought an Atlanta home in the span of a halftime commercial that ran in the local market to demonstrate the ease of selling to its platform. Opendoor used the Rose Bowl installation to strike up conversations with parents and others, reaching potentially 80,000 people who viewed the nest, Corns said. Opendoor also came away with footage for commercials and social media. “It was a high-traffic area, we had influencers there creating content around the nest on the day, amplifying it out,” Corns said. “And then we were also there with some camera crews interviewing the parents on how it felt to become empty nesters. And then took that footage and rapidly turned it into TV commercials.” See Ad Age’s 2024 Breakout Brand Leaders and Work here

Opendoor navigated marketing in a tight housing market by going after boomers

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