Monday marked the release of two new spots from Realtor.com (Trulia and Zillow also released ads), that are the center of their “accuracy matters” strategy…

and

In short, I think “accuracy matters” is a pretty smart overall strategy. Accuracy is their core differentiator against Zillow and Trulia. Focusing hard on it makes a ton of sense from my perspective.

Related, they recently announced they are not focused on gaining traffic from other portals anymore, which starts with severing ties with MSN. I do agree with the rationale that traffic quality from portals like MSN is low. And, ultimately, if traffic isn’t actual buyers / sellers who want to contact real estate agents — that traffic is not that valuable to the bottom line. Sure, the world is mobile now and focusing on their own properties is smart. But that doesn’t mean the web is irrelevant. Is ceding that portal traffic and branding to their competitors wise? Trulia or Zillow will certainly land that deal (and traffic).

If you think about Zillow – they are very much known for Zestimates. Fortunately, consumers want to consume them in a big way. You can find Zestimates in various places online (the strategy early on was spread the Zillow brand far and wide by distributing data everywhere) — but the ONLY place you can find them in a native mobile app is in the Zillow’s apps. Of course, that forces people on phones to use the Zillow app even if they are using another in tandem.

Effectively, Realtor.com have realized they are the only place consumers can find up to the minute data across all MLSs, and are focused on bringing that to the attention of consumers around the country. And making consumers come to them, rather than access their data from other channels. The only place, that is, except the 1,000’s upon 1,000’s of VOW/IDX broker and agent sites in existence in every single market.

Don’t get me wrong, I am a fan of the “accuracy matters” campaign and strategy. I just wonder whether the long term differentiation is enough.