Rocket's Super Bowl sing-along looks to 'Own the Dream'

After a hiatus, Rocket Cos. returned to the Super Bowl as an advertiser, launching an integrated marketing campaign under the name "Own the Dream."

The 60-second spot is set to "Take Me Home, Country Roads," a song first popularized by the late John Denver. After the spot was completed, the scene turned back to the Superdome, where Super Bowl spectators sang the song live.

The idea for the stadium sing-along was born from a suggestion during a creative workshop for the ad, said Jonathan Mildenhall, who joined the company a little over a year ago as chief marketing officer.

"Months of approval followed, with Fox and the NFL initially pushing for a pre-taped version," Mildenhall said in an email interview before the game. "But two weeks ago, Fox called back and said, 'Let's make it happen live.'"

The ad was created by Mirimar in collaboration with Rocket's in-house creative team. It was directed by Matthew Dillon Cohen in his Super Bowl debut; he has previously directed music videos for Zach Bryan and Olivia Rodrigo, among others, according to IMDb.

Rocket recently undertook a rebranding, renaming its title and third party mortgage originations channel to better reflect the relationship with their parent. It also launched the Rocket.com website.

The company is known for making a splash at the Super Bowl. Back in 2016, when the company was still known as Quicken Loans, its commercial for what was then just a product called Rocket Mortgage drew an almost immediate response from many on social media, including the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

When asked if the company is looking to recreate that buzz nine Super Bowls later, Mildenhall said "Rocket is creating conversation around homeownership like no brand has before. While our past Super Bowl ads were successful, this time Rocket is going beyond an ad and establishing a cultural moment — one that extends past the game and deeply connects with people."

However, in years past, some Rocket ads have included star power, including Anna Kendrick in 2022 as Barbie, and Tracey Morgan in 2021.

"This was the moment for Rocket to make history," Mildenhall said, pointing to the 92% that agree with the statement that homeownership is a fundamental part of the American Dream.

"In a divided nation, such universal belief is rare, so Rocket saw an opportunity to put the dream of home on the biggest cultural stage, the Super Bowl," he said.

This year Rocket isn't the only housing-related company with a Super Bowl ad.

Homes.com, which is owned by Costar Group, had two ads during the game, lasting 30 seconds each, and featured a big name director as well as stars.

In the first quarter, it ran "Not Saying We're the Best," and followed that up in the third quarter with "Still Not Saying We're the Best."

Both were directed by Taika Waititi, and feature Dan Levy as Homes.com CEO with Heidi Gardner as his top executive. Morgan Freeman is making a cameo.

Levy and Gardner are trying to convince the company's attorney to let them say Homes.com is the best home shopping site.

A year ago during the game, Costar launched a $1 billion campaign to introduce Homes.com.

"We believe that it is obvious that Homes.com is the best home shopping website anywhere, but our lawyers told us, while it may be true, we cannot legally say that in an ad," said Andy Florance, Costar Group CEO, in a press release. "So we turned to the very best talent…Taika Waititi, Dan Levy, Heidi Gardner, and Morgan Freeman to not tell the world that Homes.com is the best."

The only other financial brands with ads this year appear to be Nerdwallet and Turbotax, according to an article on the Forbes website.