Reaching American Dreamers

In the 1940s and ’50s, Warmington Homes used roadside billboards to pitch its homes, beckoning to post-World War II families making Sunday drives through the sprawling subdivisions hugging the Los Angeles County-Orange County border. The message was simple–price and location.

Fast forward to the 1970s and the arrival of planned communities. No longer relying only on billboards, Warmington used newspaper ads to show lush landscaping, children at play and tastefully furnished rooms. Floor-plan diagrams were standard.

“We hit hard on the emotional aspects and romanticism of places like Irvine,” said Larry Riggs, Warmington executive vice president.

In the 1980s, ads for Costa Mesa-based Warmington focused on the bottom line as buyers began viewing homes as investments. “It was dollars and cents,” Riggs said. “We did lots of real hard-hitting money ads.”

Today, as homes go up in outlying communities, Warmington’s pitch has swung back to emotion. It can’t talk about location as it did in the ’40s–the new developments are long commutes from Los Angeles. Ads for its project in Santa Clarita show few homes. Instead, there are pictures of puppy dogs, parks and tennis courts. Warmington also makes its pitch on a Web site that is jammed with pictures, floor plans, pricing and maps.