Inside This Year’s Real Estate Super Bowl Ads

For this year’s Super Bowl, we bring you four new commercials related to real estate, though one came as a pre-game announcement. 

One was a surprise, too, though a welcome one. More on that in a bit. 

We’re even including one from Google Gemini that focuses on its applications for homebuyers. Anthropic’s Claude took a different approach (which is also well worth a peek), but before I get distracted again, let’s move on to a quick review of the four ads highlighting homes. 

The makers of those ads: 

• Rocket Mortgage/Redfin
• Homes.com 
• Google Gemini

If you’re anything like me, make sure you’ve got a box of tissues within reach before watching the first one. 

#1: “America Could Use a Neighbor…” 

Rocket Mortgage/Redfin created the following Super Bowl commercial, knowing families would be gathered to watch the big game, not to mention neighbors gathered in homes, local hot spots, and tailgate parties across the U.S. 

Anyone who’s ever moved to a new neighborhood, lost a pet, or had to uproot their kids to a new place will find the story especially moving, though being human is really the only prerequisite to feeling the tug. 

Whatever your thoughts on Redfin or Rocket Mortgage, the folks behind this commercial knew their audience and spoke to it with a simple message: “America could use a neighbor just like you.” And Lady Gaga singing her rendition of “Won’t you be my neighbor” amps up the impact. 

#2: Million-Dollar Home Scavenger Hunt

“There’s a million-dollar home hidden in Redfin’s Big Game commercial.” That’s how Redfin’s pre-game ad began, announcing a “Great American Home Search” open to anyone using the Redfin app. There are six clues to solve, and the search ends on February 10th. 

#3: “Easier to List the Places You Can’t (Live)”

Homes.com had just one Super Bowl commercial this year, backing off from the past two years as it reduces spending.  And I won’t lie and say I wasn’t hoping for one, despite the activist investor letters to CoStar Group over the past week. This year, Jeff Goldblum and Heidi Gardner teamed up for a combined Homes.com and Apartments.com commercial. The actors kept it simple and showcased a few examples of places you won’t find on either platform, emphasizing Goldblum’s statement that “you’re going to find virtually any place you can live” (or would want to).  

#4: New Home (Virtual Home Staging)

Google Gemini even got in the game with this commercial showing a mother using Gemini to introduce her young son to their soon-to-be-new-home, staging his room by prompting Gemini to “add Ben’s stuff” and then changing the wall color and adding “Charlie’s” dog bed to complete the look. You can hear the young boy’s tone grow from anxious to excited as they virtually remake the new house into something that feels like home, all through the power of AI. 

So, which of these commercials spoke to you the most?