Could the man widely acknowledged as the greatest Raptor of all time really transition into a post-NBA playing career as the greatest real estate agent of all time?
Probably not, says Re/Max Canada. Still, the real estate brand has recruited NBA star Kyle Lowry for the latest spot in the “Advice You Need” platform it launched during the Super Bowl. It’s intended to complement the brand’s multi-year sponsorship agreement with the NBA, now in its second year.
The new campaign from Arrivals+Departures debuted on Monday, and runs for six months across TV/OLV and TikTok, with True Media handling media. It consists of one 30-second spot, a pair of 15s, and a TikTok execution. It continues the creative approach of the original ads, in which people not particularly well-suited to talking about real estate provide prospective home owners with unsolicited—and generally incorrect—advice.
The lead spot features Lowry delivering a pep talk to a couple and their daughter looking at a house. It’s presented as a sports documentary of sorts, with Lowry at first heard but not seen, talking over shots of the home’s features while backed by swelling orchestral music.
“This is where our legacy begins—on this street,” he says. “This is our gym. Our floor. Our sacred place. And tonight…this is our house.”
The spot then shows Lowry attempting to entice the somewhat befuddled family to join him in a chant of “our house.” The woman does—timidly at first, and then with full-throated passion—before the family is brought back to reality by a Re/Max agent, who reminds them there are some things to be discussed first.
“Re/Max agents don’t hypesplain, they explain,” says the closing voiceover. “With exactly the advice you need.”
A second 10-second spot shows Lowry, now equipped with a drum, trying to get the family to join him in a chant of “This is our house,” while the non-plussed Re/Max agency calmly explains that, as the family can see, the house comes with a music room.
“With Kyle Lowry, a basketball icon to Canadians, featured in our ads, we’ve found a clever way to keep Re/Max, and our message of the ‘Advice You Need,’ top of mind with Canadians,” said Re/Max’s executive director of marketing Anthony Volpini.
