theyareheretostay.com
What theyareheretostay.com was built to do
Theyareheretostay.com was not really a normal website in the usual sense, and the clearest public record shows it was a short-term mystery microsite connected to Apartments.com’s 2024 Super Bowl campaign with Jeff Goldblum.
The site’s job was to make people think they might be looking at the marketing for a new sci-fi film, not a rental-platform advertisement.
That matters because the domain name itself did a lot of the work.
“They are here to stay” sounds like a warning, a movie tagline, and a housing phrase at the same time.
That double meaning made it useful for an ad campaign about aliens who need a place to live.
RPA, the agency behind the campaign, describes the rollout as an unbranded teaser effort that spoofed an upcoming Jeff Goldblum sci-fi hit before paying off as an Apartments.com Super Bowl ad.
The website was one piece of a bigger campaign system that included broadcast teasers, social profiles, outdoor ads, and creator partnerships.
Why the site looked like a movie campaign
The public campaign trail shows that theyareheretostay.com was designed to create curiosity before the brand reveal.
The teaser featured military and scientific imagery, a mysterious presence, and Jeff Goldblum stepping into the scene with a line that played into his long association with science-fiction roles.
The teaser ended with the hashtag #TheyAreHereToStay and “Coming This February,” which made the project look like entertainment marketing rather than real estate advertising.
The Economic Times reported at the time that the website hosted a countdown tied to Super Bowl LVIII, which added to the speculation around whether “They Are Here to Stay” was a movie or a promotional stunt.
This was a smart use of a microsite because the website did not need to explain much.
It only needed to make people ask what they had just seen.
That is often the whole point of a teaser domain.
It gives the campaign a place to send curious viewers without immediately revealing the advertiser.
The Apartments.com connection
The mystery was eventually resolved through the Super Bowl spot “Extraterrentials,” where Jeff Goldblum returned as Brad Bellflower, the long-running Apartments.com character.
The final ad showed extraterrestrial arrivals needing rental help, which turned the phrase “here to stay” into a literal housing joke.
BAM’s coverage of real estate Super Bowl ads described the spot as Goldblum helping translate for aliens looking for rentals, while repeating the Apartments.com positioning as “The place to find a place.”
RPA’s broader Brad Bellflower case study explains that the character had already been used to present Apartments.com as a better, easier place to search for apartments.
That background made the mystery campaign more effective.
Some viewers could spot the Apartments.com connection early because Goldblum had been associated with the brand for years.
Other viewers could treat it like a strange new sci-fi teaser until the reveal.
What makes the website interesting
The interesting part of theyareheretostay.com is not the amount of content it held.
The interesting part is how little content it needed.
A campaign microsite like this can work as a curiosity container.
It gives people a searchable phrase, a hashtag, and a destination.
It also gives journalists and social users something to reference when discussing the mystery.
That is why the domain appeared in media coverage before the Super Bowl, even though it was not a full publication, service, or community site.
The name also avoided obvious branding.
A domain like apartmentsalienad.com would have ruined the trick.
Theyareheretostay.com kept the reveal hidden while still matching the final message.
The marketing strategy behind the domain
The site worked because it was part of a staged reveal, not a standalone destination.
LBB reported that the first 15-second teaser aired during the NFL Divisional playoff game between the Kansas City Chiefs and Buffalo Bills on January 21, 2024, and later aired during the Grammys on February 4, 2024.
That gave the campaign enough time to build speculation before the February 11 Super Bowl broadcast.
The rollout also used digital outdoor boards disguised as movie posters in Times Square, the Los Angeles Crypto.com Arena area, and other Los Angeles locations.
RPA said the campaign also used social channels and partnerships with “MovieTok” creators to extend the movie-misdirection idea.
This matters because the website was not trying to win through search traffic alone.
It was trying to catch demand created elsewhere.
People saw a teaser, searched the phrase, landed on the domain, and then waited for the reveal.
Is theyareheretostay.com a real movie website?
Based on the public evidence, theyareheretostay.com was not the official site for a real Jeff Goldblum movie.
It was part of an Apartments.com advertising campaign that borrowed the shape of a movie campaign.
The Economic Times framed the early buzz as speculation around a possible film, but also reported that the stronger explanation was a marketing effort tied to Apartments.com and Super Bowl LVIII.
That distinction is important for anyone researching the domain now.
The site may look mysterious in search history, but the mystery was intentional.
It was not a hidden film project.
It was a brand campaign built to feel like one.
How the website fits the rental brand
The campaign’s logic is simple once the reveal is known.
Apartments.com wanted to say it helps everyone find a place.
The aliens pushed that promise to an absurd extreme.
RPA’s campaign page says the brand wanted to remind renters that Apartments.com understood renters and their needs during a period of rising rents and economic uncertainty.
That message could have been delivered as a standard product ad.
Instead, the brand used sci-fi misdirection to make a familiar rental-search message feel bigger.
That is the useful lesson from the website.
A small domain can make a campaign feel larger when it gives people a mystery to follow.
Trust and safety view of the website
Theyareheretostay.com should be understood as a campaign artifact, not a long-term consumer service.
There is no strong public evidence that it operated as an independent business, marketplace, news site, or entertainment studio.
The most reliable public sources connect it to Apartments.com, RPA, Jeff Goldblum, and the Super Bowl campaign.
That means users should not treat old versions of the site as a place to submit sensitive information unless the current domain ownership and purpose are clearly verified.
Temporary campaign domains can change hands after a promotion ends.
That is not an accusation against this specific site.
It is just a practical warning about any old promotional microsite.
Key takeaways
Theyareheretostay.com was a mystery microsite for an Apartments.com campaign, not a normal content website.
The campaign used Jeff Goldblum’s sci-fi image to make people think a film announcement might be coming.
The final reveal was the Apartments.com Super Bowl spot “Extraterrentials,” where alien visitors needed help finding rentals.
The website worked because the name had two meanings: strange arrivals and people needing a place to live.
The site is best understood as a temporary advertising destination tied to a wider media rollout across TV, outdoor ads, social content, and creator partnerships.
FAQ
What is theyareheretostay.com?
Theyareheretostay.com was a promotional microsite tied to Apartments.com’s 2024 Super Bowl campaign with Jeff Goldblum.
Was “They Are Here to Stay” a real movie?
No public evidence shows it was a real movie, and the available reporting points to it as a movie-style advertising misdirect for Apartments.com.
Why was Jeff Goldblum involved?
Jeff Goldblum appeared as Brad Bellflower, the Apartments.com character he had played for years in the brand’s advertising.
What was the Super Bowl ad about?
The ad showed alien visitors coming to Earth and needing help finding an apartment, with Apartments.com positioned as the place to find a place.
Why did the campaign use a separate website?
The separate domain helped preserve the mystery before the brand reveal and gave curious viewers a destination after seeing the teaser.
Is theyareheretostay.com still useful today?
It is mainly useful as a case study in teaser marketing, campaign microsites, and how brands use mystery domains to create attention before a major ad reveal.
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