Coldwell Aims to Create Demand in Campaign : Real estate: A new ad effort is the first to encourage consumers to get into the market rather than target those already hunting for a home.

The nation’s slumping real estate market is about to find out if Madison Avenue can move homes with the same success that it has hawked soap and other consumer products over the years.

In a multimillion-dollar ad campaign that starts Wednesday on television and in newspapers such as USA Today, the Mission Viejo-based real estate firm Coldwell Banker Residential is stressing low interest rates and moderate prices, telling consumers: “Now is a great time to buy a home.”

“You have to adapt your message to the market,” said Ian Campbell, a spokesman for Great Western Bank, which began a similar ad campaign last month. “And right now there’s a buyer’s market out there.”

Although real estate firms have for years advertised to gain market share, the Coldwell and Great Western campaigns--as well as similar efforts by other realtors and financial institutions--are among the first to focus on encouraging consumers to get into the real estate market rather than targeting those who were already hunting for a home, experts say.

“Instead of trying to service demand, they are starting to try to create demand,” said C. Ray Smith, a professor of real estate finance and development in the graduate school of business at the University of Virginia.

That is a departure from traditional real estate advertising, which has stressed service, strength and trust.

Typical of that approach was Century 21, which pioneered national brand real estate advertising and rapidly grew into a nationwide franchise of 6,000 offices by asking home buyers and sellers to “Put your trust in No. 1.”

But as the 1990s ushered in an end to real estate’s glory years, the nation’s three leading brokerages have begun to rethink their marketing and advertising strategies.

Last March, Prudential Real Estate Affiliates switched its $6-million business to Lowe & Partners in New York from New York-based Backer Spielvogel Bates. A month later, Coldwell Banker Residential shifted its $15-million account from BBDO West in Los Angeles to Grey Advertising in Los Angeles. Century 21 moved its $30-million national ad account to Campbell-Mithun-Esty in Minneapolis.

“We wanted to take a very honest approach that is relevant to today’s market,” said G. Lane Barnett, a first vice president of product development and marketing for Coldwell Banker.

The change in advertising approach comes as new home sales in December plunged to their lowest level since the 1982 recession. Given the severity of the downturn, some experts aren’t sure that advertising can rescue the market.

“The question really is, ‘How big is the market of people who don’t have to sell their house in order to buy a house?’ ” said Sharon McGavin, a partner at Greenberg McGavin Inc. in New York and former advertising lecturer at the University of Virginia. “The general economic climate for housing won’t change because of advertising.”