Annie Leibovitz gives The Corcoran Group’s latest ad campaign a high-gloss sheen

For the latest iteration of The Corcoran Group‘s “Live Who You Are” marketing campaign, renowned portrait photographer Annie Leibovitz photographed 12 notable residents and their homes in the four markets the New York City-based brokerage serves in New York and Florida.

Leibovitz, who is known for her iconic photographs of John Lennon and Yoko Ono, The Rolling Stones and many other cultural celebrities, took photos of NBA star Tyson Chandler, writers Andrew and John Solomon, and singer Jimmy Buffett as part of the multimillion-dollar campaign.

In addition to full-color, full-page ads in newspapers and magazines like The New York Times, the Wall Street Journal and Food & Wine, the 12 portraits will also spread Corcoran’s brand across other media including online, outdoor, and on social media platforms Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr and Pinterest.

The campaign’s 12 portraits include subjects from the Realogy-owned firm’s core markets of Manhattan, Brooklyn, the Hamptons and Palm Beach where it has 40 offices and 2,200 agents.

The campaign is a continuation of Corcoran’s “Live Who You Are” marketing campaign, which launched in 2006 and got a makeover in 2012 with a new website, a TV marketing campaign featuring a French bulldog puppy and illustrations from Swedish artist Kari Moden.

Corcoran Chief Marketing Officer Christina Lowris-Panos estimates that the campaign’s budget will stretch into the mid-seven figures through 2014.

“Where you live says everything about who you are,” Lowris-Panos told Inman News. That’s the gist behind the campaign’s tagline, she said, and why the firm turned to Leibovitz to help bring it to life. It’s the firm’s first use of real people in a campaign, she said.

“No one is better than Annie at meeting someone and finding out what makes them tick,” Lowris-Panos said. Including the relationship subjects have with their homes to that natural talent of capturing who they are made Leibovitz a compelling partner for this campaign, she said.

Corcoran picked a variety of subjects who it felt represented the brand, the scope of clients it serves and who were not too overexposed as to pique consumers’ curiosity, Lowris-Panos said.

The 12 subjects are:

• Michele Oka Doner, artist, Soho neighborhood of New York City
• Quincy Davis, professional surfer, Montauk, New York
• Christina Tosi, chef and owner, Milk Bar, Williamsburg neighborhood of Brooklyn
• The Topping Family, 13th-generation equestrians, Sagaponack, New York
• Misty Copeland, soloist, American Ballet Theatre, Upper West Side neighborhood of New York City
• Tyson Chandler & Family, NBA basketball player, Upper East Side neighborhood of New York City
• Andrew Solomon, John Habich Solomon and son, writers and editor, Greenwich Village neighborhood of New York City
• Evan & Oliver Haslegrave (brothers), founders of hOmE, Greenpoint neighborhood of Brooklyn
• Mario Nievera, landscape architect, Palm Beach, Florida
• Mara Miller, Jesse Carrier and family, interior designers, Carrier & Co., Carnegie Hill, New York
• Francesca and Hans Pauli, restaurateurs, Sant Ambroeus, Southampton, New York
• Jimmy Buffett, singer, songwriter and author, Palm Beach, Florida

In addition to the print and online media, Corcoran is launching a photography contest in the coming weeks as part of the campaign. To participate, users take a selfie in their home that captures who they are, upload it, give it a headline and lay it out using an app on Corcoran’s Facebook page.

The submission that best embodies the campaign’s “live who you are” tagline wins a three-night stay for two at the NoMad hotel in New York.

Another Realogy-owned brokerage, Coldwell Banker Real Estate, also used a contest as part of its “Value of a Home” marketing campaign. The global film contest, which asked filmmakers to demonstrate the value of their home in a short film, resulted in a Coldwell Banker “film festival” last September.

See all the portraits below: