Century 21’s Real People : Irvine Company’s New Ads Feature Family’s Sextuplets

Century 21 real estate agent Caprice Hines-Kay received a phone call from a pregnant woman in a hospital bed who wanted to sell her home.

“She said they were planning to expand their family,” Hines-Kay recalled. “I was stunned when they told me they were having five kids.”

The Dilleys--who eventually had six babies last May--and their business relationship with Hines-Kay are part of a series of television commercials being launched today, building on Century 21 Real Estate Corp.’s testimonial ads from 1993. The Irvine-based real estate sales network said it hopes to stir enthusiasm among its 5,000 U.S. sales agents as much as to bring in home buyers.

The testimonial approach has recently been adopted by MCI, Cablevision Industries and HomeBase. John Kasper, vice president of Century 21’s ad agency, Campbell Mithun Esty in Minneapolis, said he declined to use actors as some testimonials do.

“There’s a realism that comes across when someone is talking about their own company,” Kasper said.

Serendipitously, ABC’s new magazine show, “Turning Point,” co-hosted by Diane Sawyer, aired a profile of the Dilley family last Wednesday night. The show’s crew had visited the family over a period of nine months.

“We didn’t plan that,” quipped Kasper.

Mother Becki Dilley and Hines-Kay communicated through nurses and fax machines to sell their two-bedroom, Bloomington, Ind., home within 60 days. They met in person for the first time after the babies were born.

The family is building a new home in an Indianapolis suburb.