Inman

Trulia throws down ad campaign with mad skills — featuring, wait, MC Hammer?

Courtesy of Trulia and Youtube

Trulia’s new marketing campaign, “Hammerfy Your Home,” is a way for buyers, renters and window shoppers to let loose during the homebuying and selling processes — or partake in some retro hip-hop jamming just for funsies.

Consumers can visit the campaign’s well-illustrated and easy-to-use microsite and answer six questions — hard questions, like your name. The rest are multiple-choice based on the features and amenities that shopper’s needs.

Some of the choices are realistic, but there’s at least one per category that’s ridiculous or silly, which makes it fun. (Try it; you know you want to.)

This is the video that Trulia released to kick off the campaign:

Trulia teamed up with The Marketing Arm for the Hammerfy Your Home campaign and worked with Jingle Punks to create the rap lyrics Hammer spits in the videos.

“I have always been interested in real estate, so when I had the opportunity to partner with Trulia on this campaign, of course, I said ‘yes,'” hip-hop legend MC Hammer said in the campaign’s press release.

“Anyone that has been through the home searching process knows that it can be stressful. What better way to stay inspired than to turn your search into a new music video, and let your friends get in on the fun?”

That’s all well and good, but this “U Can’t Touch This” loving writer is hoping for a much-needed, post-bankruptcy MC Hammer comeback, especially after seeing the Command Strip commercial.

As I’ve said, I’m a child of the ’80s or a millennial by some peoples’ standards, so I couldn’t resist doing a home search that’s too legit to quit. (Remember the silly answers I mentioned earlier? I chose all of those and made the video below. It had to be done.)

If you watch the first video and compare, you’ll get the idea of how these videos work.

OK, so it’s really a cleverly mashed mix of video, music and answers to multiple-choice questions (that can create up to 3,000 combinations, according to Trulia) — but it’s amusing to see what your dream home (insert mental air quotes around “dream home”) might look like (ghosts, Koi pond, panic room and all).

And it’s all delivered in a means that certainly has the potential to go viral — in the way those silly dancing elf videos that you see at Christmastime with everyone you know’s family are ever-so-shared on social media.

How much it will help homebuyers find their dream home (air quotes) remains to be seen.

But you can bet that when consumers catch wind of personalized MC Hammer videos, Trulia’s web traffic will increase.

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Email Dani Vanderboegh.