A new auto insurance marketing campaign from State Farm leverages excitement around the new NFL season and is fronted by athlete ambassadors Aaron Rodgers and Clay Matthews.
The spearhead spot’s narrative starts with the Green Bay Packers’ super star quarterback Rodgers and linebacker Matthews pump up the team in a locker room pep talk: laying down the law that ‘no one comes into their house without paying the price’.
Before the ad switches to Rodgers using the same phrase whilst at home attempting to kill an annoying house fly with a golf club which he ends up accidentally hurling through his car window.
This comic 30-second TV commercial, called simply ‘State Farm Pep Talk’, was developed in tandem with agency DDB.
closes with the brand’s ongoing ‘Here to Help Life Go Right’ tagline and debuted in September at the start of the new 2016/17 NFL season.
It was posted on the insurer’s YouTube page on 8 September and in its first month has notched up almost 500,000 views.
The creative is also being amplified socially – including on the State Farm Facebook page and Twitter feed.
Everyone is welcome to hang with @AaronRodgers12 and @ClayMatthews52…well, almost everyone. pic.twitter.com/Cgc9sGOQiI
— State Farm (@StateFarm) September 6, 2016
.@rcobb18 It’s a trouse. #Housegating https://t.co/dhMTZgJnw7
— State Farm (@StateFarm) September 20, 2016
The ad, which also includes radio and digital content support strands, was followed up by a further commercial featuring Rodgers and receiver Randall Cobb promoting joint home/auto insurance packages.
A further State Farm spot featuring both Packers players is due to air on Thanksgiving Day.
Comment
There is little innovative or original about this campaign: it features that tried and tested tactic of using an athlete ambaasador to front a comic commercial launched to leverage interest in a new sports season.
But what it notable is the length of the partnership between the sports endorser and the brand and the consistency of the campaigns!
This year’s commercial marks the sixth consecutive year that sports star endorser Aaron Rodgers has partnered with State Farm on a football season related campaign.
2015’s State Farm Rodgers fronted September commercials were led by a spot called ‘Still On’ – which first aired during an early season Packers/Chiefs game and which saw a referee thank the quarterback for telling him about the State Farm Discount Double Check, but then lament not double-checking his microphone during a play earlier in the game.
Over the last five years or so State Farm’s sponsorship strategy has evolved around the ‘less is more’ principle: it has steadily trimmed down its property portfolio and switched its spend to increased activation focused around fewer properties and specific athlete endorsers.
This saw it part company from its official sponsorships with the NFL in 2009, with the NCAA in 2011 and with MLB in 2012.
It then upped its focus and investment around its official NBA partnership (often in tandem with creative led by basketball ambassador Chris Paul – see case study) and then marketed around what it describes as ‘more ownable’ areas in professional football and college athletics (such as these ongoing campaigns with Rodgers and its media partnership with ESPN’s ‘College GameDay’, as well as individual college partnerships with almost 100 schools across the USA).
Links:
State Farm Facebook:
State Farm Twitter
State Farm Instagram:
State Farm YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/user/statefarm
State Farm Web:
DDB:
