Century 21 Hires Ad Firm for TV Campaign : Advertising: Laguna Hills-based Townsend & O’Leary will produce half the spots. The Irvine real estate company says the decision does not signal a rift with its agency of record.

Century 21 Real Estate Corp. edged aside its ad agency of record in favor of Laguna Hills-based Townsend & O’Leary to produce half the spots for a new television campaign.

Irvine-based Century 21 spends about $20 million a year on advertising, but would not say how much of it is spent on the television ads that began airing last month.

Townsend & O’Leary, which bills an estimated $15 million annually, created television commercials in Canada for Century 21. The commercials feature Century 21 agents saying why they like the organization.

The company’s U.S. headquarters was impressed with the Canadian campaign, and it commissioned Townsend & O’Leary to produce similar ads here.

Jay Tolman, a spokesman for Century 21, said the decision does not signal a rift with the company’s agency of record, Minneapolis-based CME-KHBB. “This is a one-time-only deal,” Tolman said Tuesday. “We may or may not use Townsend again.”

Townsend officials could not be reached Tuesday.

CME-KHBB created the other half of Century 21’s television campaign, the “letters” commercials: A broker is seen reading a praise-filled letter from a home buyer, then the scene cuts to actors re-enacting the buyer’s experience.

The commercials mark the first time that actual agent testimonials and customer letters have been used in a real estate industry ad, Century 21 said.

The idea grew out of a real letter from a woman whose family moved from Illinois to California, Tolman said.

The letters and agent testimonial ads are both airing now. Tolman said CME-KHBB is doing all of the media buying for the campaign.