Our goal was to continue to promote Apartments.com as the industry leader when it comes to renting. And to let renters know that when they are in need of a change, there is no better place to turn. But also, to create a campaign designed for social and the universal experience of renters spending a lot more time at home than usual.
Our campaign played off one of the most relatable topics in renting: the timeless noisy neighbor question “What’s going on over there?!” And as it turns out, what’s going on over there is even weirder than imagined.
Playing with the functionality of Instagram Stories, we turned neighboring story chapters into neighboring apartments and allowed users to “tap to see” what's causing the racket next door. We hook the user in the first frame with an odd, disembodied sound through the wall, and upon tapping, the camera moves through the wall to reveal the source. Each ad ends with the message that there’s an easy solve to noisy neighbors: a quick search on Apartments.com.
This campaign launched during lockdown when an entire country of renters was unfortunately getting better acquainted with their noisy neighbors. It was something people related to before but became even more relevant than we could have ever expected.
Running next to a sea of “in this current climate…” type of advertisements with a relatable and funny message that can be summed up concisely in a few quick frames, we were able to stand out in a good way. And taking the user directly through the wall from Brad Bellflower’s place with a simple click to the next frame, proved seamless and created an interactivity that pushed the way that we could play with the format of IG.
We all have had horrible noisy neighbors, so we sent out a gentle reminder that if you need a better place, you can find a better place on Apartments.com, the most popular place to find a place.
