Century 21 Scraps TV Ads, Starts New Campaign : Advertising: The real estate giant purchases new television commercials that convey a warmer, more personal image.

Century 21 Real Estate Corp. has scrapped the television campaign prepared by its former advertising agency and launched a new campaign five months early in a bid to convey a warmer, more personal image to consumers.

The giant franchiser of resale real estate offices in June awarded its $30-million national ad account to Campbell-Mithun-Esty in Minneapolis, severing a seven-year relationship with the Los Angeles office of the McCann-Erickson agency.

The change came in the midst of a nationwide housing slump, but officials say it wasn’t the downturn that prompted Century 21 to begin a new TV campaign months before its March sales convention--the traditional launch date of its annual campaign.

When the finalists for the national ad contract were reviewed in the early summer, “we just liked the Campbell-Mithun-Esty stuff so well that we decided to put it on the air in the fall instead of waiting until our March convention,” said Bruce Oseland, senior vice president for marketing and advertising at Century 21.

The new campaign “differs tremendously from the old one,” he said.

“For the last 10 years, we have been talking about size. Our campaigns have said ‘Put No. 1 to work for you’ and ‘We are No. 1.’ Now we are talking about the individual agent and service, so it represents a dramatic shift.”

The new ad agency has filmed five television commercials, and Century 21 aired the first two in mid-October.

The company will wait until March to air the three remaining commercials, Oseland said.

He described the new TV campaign as “something designed to set the stage for things we are doing internally to turn up the level of service a notch.”

“We are now sending every franchisee in Century 21 through intensive training in delivering a higher level of service to home sellers,” he said. “And we are putting a service pledge in writing and giving it to everyone who lists with us.

“That written pledge will be mandatory in all of our offices next year.”

The Campbell-Mithun-Esty ads “talk about quality and the type of service our people provide,” Oseland said.

Although Century 21, with 6,000 domestic offices, is justified in claiming the No. 1 title, several strong competitors have emerged in recent years as franchising has caught on in the real estate business. Competitors including Coldwell Banker in Newport Beach, Prudential Real Estate Affiliates in Costa Mesa and RE/Max, based in Denver, have been conducting ad campaigns that tout their services.

When Century 21 pulled its national account from McCann-Erickson, it gave its regional operations permission for the first time to select their own local ad agencies. Previously, Oseland said, McCann-Erickson handled the regional ad business, worth about $10 million annually.

Oseland said a new agency will be named in December to replace McCann-Erickson to handle the company’s $2.5-million western region account.

Of the five contenders, four are in Los Angeles and the fifth, Townsend & O’Leary, is based in Laguna Hills.