CoStar Group, the digital real estate powerhouse that operates both Apartments.com and Homes.com, is implementing a bold new marketing strategy for Super Bowl 60 that breaks from its established playbook. Instead of purchasing separate commercial slots for each brand—a practice it has followed consistently in recent years—the company is merging its advertising efforts into a single, star-powered spot that promotes both platforms in tandem. This strategic consolidation represents a significant evolution in how major real estate technology companies approach the most-watched television event in the United States, potentially reshaping industry norms for years to come.
The collaborative commercial, titled "Can't Live There," unites two of CoStar's most valuable brand assets: Jeff Goldblum, the eccentric and beloved spokesperson for Apartments.com, and Heidi Gardner, the comedic talent who has become synonymous with Homes.com. The creative concept employs a humorous, reverse-psychology approach—rather than simply listing what the platforms offer, the ad focuses on the comically limited number of places where you cannot find a home through their services. This unconventional angle helps the message stand out in the crowded Super Bowl advertising landscape.
In the spot, Goldblum and Gardner appear side-by-side, delivering a synchronized message that emphasizes the comprehensive nature of their combined property databases. They wittily enumerate several locations that remain stubbornly outside the realm of residential possibility: active airplane runways where jumbo jets land at high speeds, golf driving ranges where balls fly with dangerous velocity, decommissioned Soviet Union space stations still orbiting Earth, and the crushing, lightless depths of the Mariana Trench. This absurdist humor serves a strategic purpose—by highlighting the extreme edge cases where their platforms are irrelevant, they implicitly communicate that every actual housing option is comprehensively covered.
"Otherwise, if you can live in it, you're going to find it on Apartments.com and Homes.com," the pair concludes in perfect unison, cementing the unified brand message that will be broadcast to over 100 million viewers.
This integrated approach marks a notable departure from CoStar's historical Super Bowl advertising philosophy. The company has long treated its portfolio brands as distinct entities, each meriting its own dedicated creative concept, media buy, and narrative universe. Apartments.com, for instance, has meticulously constructed a brand identity around Goldblum's recurring character, Brad Bellflower, a quirky Silicon Valley maverick who proudly claims to have invented the "Apartminternet." This character has anchored multiple Super Bowl campaigns, creating a consistent and memorable brand association that viewers have come to recognize and anticipate with each passing year.
Similarly, Homes.com has invested substantial resources in building its own separate brand story during the big game. Over the past two championship contests, the platform has centered its commercials around Gardner's character, Marci, and actor Dan Levy's character, Luke, who portray the company's owner and top sales executive respectively. Last year's Super Bowl featured two distinct Homes.com ads starring Gardner and Levy, complete with a surprise cameo from the iconic Morgan Freeman. This approach established Homes.com as a serious, independent Super Bowl advertiser with its own creative ecosystem and character development that viewers could follow across multiple campaigns.
The decision to merge these two successful but separate narratives into a single commercial suggests several underlying strategic imperatives that extend beyond mere cost savings. First, it likely reflects economic pragmatism in an era of skyrocketing Super Bowl advertising costs, which now exceed $7 million for a standard 30-second placement. By combining budgets and creative resources, CoStar can achieve greater efficiency while still delivering significant brand impact for both platforms. This financial calculus becomes even more compelling when considering the additional production costs associated with high-profile celebrity talent like Goldblum and Gardner, not to mention the expenses of multiple film shoots and post-production cycles.
Second, the integration may signal a broader corporate repositioning aimed at presenting Apartments.com and Homes.com as complementary components of a unified housing search ecosystem rather than competing or unrelated services. While Apartments.com has traditionally dominated the rental market and Homes.com has focused on home purchases, the overlapping messaging suggests CoStar wants consumers to instinctively turn to both platforms throughout their housing journey—whether they're searching for a downtown apartment, a suburban family home, or transitioning from renting to buying.
The creative execution demonstrates sophisticated brand management and careful message architecture. Rather than subordinating one platform to the other, the commercial provides equal billing to both Goldblum and Gardner, both verbally and visually. The script carefully balances screen time and dialogue, ensuring neither brand overshadows the other. This egalitarian approach prevents consumer confusion while reinforcing the strategic message that these are partner platforms within a larger CoStar family, working together to solve all housing needs.
The casting itself represents a masterstroke of celebrity marketing and brand alignment. Jeff Goldblum's distinctive cadence, eccentric charm, and established advertising credibility make him one of the most sought-after brand ambassadors in the industry. His participation in CoStar's ad is particularly remarkable because he is also starring in Comcast's Super Bowl commercial this same year—a rare double-dipping that underscores his unique appeal to advertisers and audiences. This dual presence could potentially create a "Goldblum effect" where viewers actively seek out both spots, amplifying impact for both brands and making him one of the most visible celebrities of Super Bowl Sunday.
Heidi Gardner brings her own substantial comedic credentials from her tenure on Saturday Night Live, where she has honed her timing and character work. Her character Marci has evolved into the emotional and narrative anchor for Homes.com's brand identity, and her ability to share the screen as an equal partner with a veteran like Goldblum speaks to her strength as a brand ambassador. The chemistry between the two performers—one known for deadpan eccentricity, the other for sharp, reactive comedic timing—creates a dynamic that should resonate well with Super Bowl audiences who expect both humor and star power.
Production details remain somewhat opaque, which is typical for high-stakes Super Bowl campaigns. While independent agency RPA has historically served as the creative force behind campaigns for both Apartments.com and Homes.com, the agency has not publicly confirmed its involvement in this year's integrated effort. This silence could indicate a new creative partnership, or simply reflect the intense confidentiality that surrounds Super Bowl advertising campaigns, where leaks are carefully controlled and official confirmations are often withheld until game day to maximize surprise and impact.
From an industry-wide perspective, CoStar's consolidation strategy reflects broader trends in digital real estate marketing and multi-brand portfolio management. The sector has become fiercely competitive, with major players like Zillow, Redfin, and Realtor.com all investing heavily in brand-building advertising that emphasizes emotional connection as much as functional utility. In this crowded landscape, creating a memorable, differentiated message is paramount. The Super Bowl offers a unique, mass-reach opportunity that cannot be replicated through digital channels alone, and CoStar's decision to present a unified front may reflect a belief that a single, powerful brand impression is more valuable than multiple, potentially fragmented ones that compete for attention.
The humor-driven creative approach also aligns perfectly with contemporary Super Bowl advertising expectations. The game's commercials have transcended their original purpose to become a cultural event in themselves, with viewers actively seeking out entertaining, shareable content that they can discuss at watch parties and share on social media. By crafting a spot that enumerates absurd, impossible living situations, CoStar is tapping into this desire for levity while still delivering a clear value proposition. The joke structure—listing ridiculous exceptions to prove the comprehensive rule—is both memorable and easily digestible for a mass audience that may only be half-watching between bites of nachos.
Furthermore, the timing of this strategic shift coincides with significant transformation in the real estate market itself. Changing interest rates, the normalization of remote work, shifting demographic preferences, and evolving urban-suburban dynamics have all complicated the housing search process for average consumers. In this environment, presenting a unified solution that addresses multiple housing scenarios—renting versus buying, urban versus suburban, short-term versus long-term—could provide CoStar with a competitive advantage. Consumers facing complex housing decisions may appreciate the simplicity of turning to interconnected platforms rather than navigating separate services with different interfaces and databases.
The "Can't Live There" concept also demonstrates sophisticated message discipline and creative restraint. Rather than trying to communicate complex feature sets, technical advantages, or inventory statistics, the ad reduces the value proposition to its elegant essence: if a place is livable, it's listed. This simplicity is crucial for Super Bowl advertising, where messages must cut through the noise of parties, conversations, and competing commercials. The memorable tagline and visual gags (imaging living on a runway or in a space station) create mental hooks that should persist long after the final whistle blows.
As advertising analysts and industry observers await Super Bowl Sunday, several key questions emerge that will determine whether this integrated approach becomes a new industry standard or remains a unique case study. Will this combined approach generate equal brand recall for both Apartments.com and Homes.com, or will one brand dominate viewer memory? Will the humor translate effectively across diverse audience segments, from first-time renters to experienced homeowners? And perhaps most importantly, will this consolidation strategy become a template that other multi-brand conglomerates adopt for their own Super Bowl campaigns, potentially reducing the overall number of commercials while increasing the creative impact of those that remain?
The precedent being set here extends beyond just CoStar's portfolio and could influence how other companies manage multiple brands on advertising's biggest stage. If successful, it could encourage other corporations with several consumer-facing brands to consider similar integrations, potentially altering the economics and logistics of Super Bowl advertising for years to come. This could lead to fewer but more impactful commercials, changing the viewing experience and the competitive dynamics of securing ad slots.
One thing is certain: by bringing together Jeff Goldblum and Heidi Gardner—two performers with distinct but complementary comedic styles—CoStar has generated immediate pre-game buzz and media attention. The "Can't Live There" concept offers a fresh, witty take on real estate advertising while honoring the quirky brand personalities that each platform has carefully cultivated over years of consistent marketing. Whether this marks the dawn of a new era in integrated Super Bowl marketing or remains an isolated experiment, it showcases CoStar's willingness to challenge conventional wisdom, take calculated risks, and innovate on advertising's biggest stage where the stakes are highest and the audience is most unforgiving.