North American insurer State Farm activated around the NFL’s Super Bowl 56 well ahead of kick-off with a TikTok led campaign spearheaded by a video which seeks to target a new generation of customers introducing ‘#TeamStateFarm TikTok Challenge’.
Launched on 22 January, weeks ahead of the 13 February Super Bowl, the campaign sees the brand’s ‘Jake From State Farm’ character play the role of a football talent scout evaluating video submissions on TikTok. The launch social spot asks viewers/users to show off their talents (no football skills required) with TikTok’s duet feature and use the #TeamStateFarm hashtag.
@jakefromstatefarm Follow me, #duet this and use #TeamStateFarm & #contest ♬ original sound – Jake from State Farm
On Super Bowl Sunday the three best videos will be pinned to the top of Jake’s personal TikTok page and users are invited to vote for the winning video simply by liking their favorite.
The initiative was developed by State Farm’s marketing team and its agency The Marketing Arm and the team chose to focus on TikTok “to meet the next generation of consumers by showing up where they’re spending their time and in spaces that they’re interested in.”
“Rather than focus solely on one day and a traditional on-air spot, which admittedly was a huge success for us last year, we decided to tap into the ongoing excitement of #TeamStateFarm to extend engagement from the regular season into the postseason and beyond,” explained State Farm Marketing VP Alyson Griffin.
“By tapping into the creative TikTok community, we see this activation as a chance for State Farm to show up in a dynamic and completely unexpected way while further sharing our ‘good neighbor’ values,” Griffin added.
This work marks the first time that State Farm has used an interactive social media presence during the NFL Playoffs and the Big Game. But in the brief time the insurer has had an active TikTok channel it has already attracted more than 200,000 followers for Jake From State Farm.
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Whilst State Farm aired its first-ever Super Bowl ad in 2021 with celebrities Drake and Paul Rudd, this year the insurer’s marketing team clearly believes it represents better value for money to attempt to engage fans online.
And with credit reporting agency TransUnion showing an increase in Gen Z and millennial auto insurance spending last year (and a decline in Baby Boomer and Gen X insurance buys), State Farm seems to be being strategically smart in using TikTok to keep pace with the evolving market.
With TikTok now boasting more than 1 billion monthly active users, it is no longer a niche platform but a mainstream channel where marketers now need to be genuinely inventive and engaging in order to stand out.
Sport plays a key role in State Farm’s marketing mix and this initiative follows on from the brand’s November 2021 innovative NFL ‘Football Find’ NFT treasure hunt, as well as its September initiative which saw ‘Jake’ become the first brand mascot character to have an ‘Avatar Available To Play in NBA 2K‘.
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