Rocket’s ‘Own the Dream’ campaign, by Zenith, won Silver in Media Innovation and Gold in Media Campaign, TVCTV at The Drum Awards. It aimed to reignite the American Dream of homeownership, leveraging a historic Super Bowl singalong to create an epic, inclusive, and intimate experience, resulting in significant business impact and record-breaking engagement.
Americans are divided, but they share one unifying belief—the American Dream. At its heart lies homeownership. Despite its emotional and financial significance, no brand had truly owned the homeownership narrative—until Rocket.
The company needed to position itself beyond the transaction and into the heart of what homeownership really means: security, generational wealth, and the deep, irreplaceable sense of belonging that comes with having a place you call your own.
Enter: 'Own the Dream.' Not just a creative platform to inspire America, but a movement to effect massive positive change. The campaign was about making the seemingly impossible dream of homeownership possible. We embraced that sentiment in the media strategy, which was grounded in consumer insight from Rocket’s audience segmentation and our proprietary identity solution. Growth audiences comprised of growing families, Hispanics, and Veterans were integral components of the strategy.
A traditional brand relaunch wouldn’t be enough to shake America loose of the pessimism about the current housing market. While 90% of people surveyed said homeownership is essential to the American Dream, 86% didn’t believe they’d ever own a home. We needed to create a moment of unity to reignite the American Dream, cultivating the next generation of homebuyers. A moment that felt inclusive, intimate, and deeply meaningful, but one that resonated at an epic scale. Only a tentpole like the Super Bowl could spark a cultural movement fueled by epic intimacy.
Advertisement
To break through—Rocket flipped the script by portraying real people in their :60 ad, leveraging John Denver’s “Take Me Home, Country Roads” as a brand anthem, delivering a historic moment of unity at America’s largest media platform.
We knew an ad alone wouldn’t reignite this belief. Rocket needed an epic, unmissable experience, meeting Americans at every life stage with precision and scale to show them homeownership is possible. For the FIRST TIME in Super Bowl history, we created a LIVE commercial crossover. Our 60-second ad transitioned into a surprise in-stadium singalong, turning our unifying Super Bowl ad into an unforgettable live experience with voices filling the stadium and echoing through viewers’ screens.
Creating a first-ever, live commercial crossover and seamlessly blending Rocket’s 60-second ad with a 15-second historic moment of unity, was a steep challenge. No one had EVER created advertising beyond the commercial pods and halftime show. We were told it was impossible, but we negotiated uncharted deals. We pulled it off, making the impossible possible.
Initially, the NFL and its Super Bowl broadcaster, FOX, were quick to shut down the idea of the Super Bowl singalong. We considered taking a guerrilla approach, but it became clear that this stunt wouldn’t be possible without their cooperation. We also considered staging the singalong—pre-recording and editing it ahead of time. But it needed to be authentic, so we persisted.
After months of negotiation and creating a new framework for this world-first live stunt, we got our broadcast partners excited about the potential of this first-of-its-kind activation. On Rocket’s side, this was a massive risk for any brand to take. Though we planned for every conceivable variable, there’s always a level of unpredictability at live sporting events. What if there was an injury, a fight, or a political protest in the crowd while the song played in the stadium? We had to be comfortable with unknowns, while meticulously navigating the live experience.
It required FOX selling time that wasn’t theirs to sell, and the NFL syncing the live broadcast with a stadium activation. It required moving other advertisers to put us in the right pod position. It required us to risk everything on the hope that 65,000 fans would participate.
We did just that. For the first time in Super Bowl history, we created what wasn’t for sale—15 seconds of media time during the game, allowing Rocket’s ad to cross over into the stadium and broadcast across America. We made the impossible possible.
Advertisement
This went beyond an ad; we engineered a live, unrepeatable cultural moment. With flawless coordination across FOX and the NFL, the singalong was brought to life, combining scale and engagement on the largest media platform. The unique experience inspired 65,000 people to sing and outperformed the Super Bowl’s own halftime show by delivering 462 million views on social, proving Americans had embraced our moment of unity.
Leveraging an iconic event like the Super Bowl was intentional, to unify audiences—both live and at-home—around the emotional tenet to ‘Own the Dream.’ The live singalong was a FIRST EVER activation at such a high profile, highly watched TV event for everyone.
The element of surprise allowed us to dominate social and news headlines, further amplified through digital, OOH, and print media placements.
We leveraged powerful partnerships, high-impact sponsorships, and precision targeting—ensuring ‘Own the Dream’ wasn’t merely viewed but felt, delivering epic intimacy, across multiple channels and media touchpoints.
Advertisement
Our media moment of unity put the American Dream back on the market, proving that America is once again ready to ‘Own The Dream.’ Most importantly, it delivered business impact:
The launch broke records:
We overachieved on brand engagement, redefining the way marketers view Super Bowl advertising opportunities in the future. Rocket knew it would take something special to reignite belief in the American Dream of homeownership. Despite the risk, the Rocket team was determined to throw the Super Bowl’s biggest Hail Mary—and that risk paid off.
Ready to get your work recognized on a global stage? Enter The Drum Awards today. Need more inspiration? Read our Award Winning Case Studies.
Zenith
Zenith is the ROI Agency. Our more than 6,000 specialists across 95 markets offer unparalleled capabilities in Media, Data, Technology, Commerce and Content. We...