The average consumer likely can’t tell you the ins-and-outs of a current insurance policy, but chances are they can rattle off the details from any number of costly ad campaigns for insurance products. Meanwhile, some of the industry’s biggest names continue to pour millions into overwhelming ad efforts. And yet, the business is growing quite competitive: upstarts in the field, like Lemonade and SoFi, try to tempt consumers with the suggestion of better better rates obtained with digital techniques. “Nobody wants to shop for insurance,” says Ari Lightman, a professor of digital media and marketing at Carnegie Mellon University. Insurance is an intangible product that few consumers crave, like an Apple smartphone or shoes from Nike. Indeed, advertising insurance poses a heady challenge. “But it’s hard to go with a consistent campaign when every single ad features a different agent.” Certainly, our brand is tied to State Farm agents,” says the executive. “We had featured our real agents in our commercials and that served us very well over time. “People asked us, ‘How many of these ads did you run?’ It was really just the one commercial,” explains Rand Harbert, the company’s chief agency, sales and marketing officer, in an interview.Īs 2020 beckoned, Harbert and his team decided they needed to do more with Jake. The commercial proved so popular that State Farm kept putting it on the air. “What are you wearing, ‘Jake From State Farm?”” she asks. The potential customer’s wife hears the call and assumes her husband is conversing with someone more illicit. State Farm, the insurance giant that has for nearly a century been selling the stuff to consumers, in 2011 started running a funny ad featuring one of its actual call-center employees playing “Jake,” sitting in an office cubicle taking a call at about 3:10 a.m. Clean and the Kool-Aid Man - even though the floor-polish icon is owned by a rival consumer-products manufacturer.Ĭhances are Jake would not have gotten to where he is today without working that overnight shift. These figures, which can range from the Pillsbury Doughboy to “Lily,” a store clerk who turns up in ads featuring AT&T stores, still have some allure, and can even serve as the base of a storytelling “universe.” During the 2020 broadcast of Super Bowl LIV, for example, Planters ran a spot that featured not only Mr. Though the advertising world is moving away from the elements that have made TV commercials successful for decades, it still likes to build Jakes - and others like him. Others beholding the falcon are envious, and make comments to the effect, “ Aww, I could have got a falcon!” The couple call their State Farm agent and thank him for buying them a falcon, but he denies having done that, maintaining that he simply saves people money, and that what they do with it is their concern.ĭespite the fact that the peregrine falcon is magnificent, it should be pointed out that they are classified as raptors, the possession of which generally requires state and federal permits that can take years to acquire as well as specialized knowledge about their care and handling.Jake fans have an opportunity now to watch an advertising icon in its earliest days, at a moment when he’s likely not bound by pages of rules or corporate “bibles” mandating how he can and can’t be used and the exact shade of red that needs to be employed for his shirt. – – Insurance companies seem to be competing these days over who can produce the most off-the-wall commercials, and State Farm is in the running with an ad featuring a couple walking down a surreal street populated by a number of people, many of whom are carrying strange objects such as a gumball machine or a stuffed moose head.-Well, it seems our man on the street has been saved sufficient money that he’s invested it in a falcon, which we see perched on his gloved arm.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |