The start of November saw US insurer State Farm join the non-fungible tokens (NFT) bandwagon via a digital scavenger hunt called the official #TeamStateFarm ‘Football Find’ game.
Starting on 4 November and revolving around a bespoke web hub at https://www.teamstatefarmfootballfind.com/, the insurance company’s virtual treasure hunt challenges participants to use their smartphones – akin to Pokemon Go – to find more than 500,000 virtual footballs.
During the scavenger hunt, once a player clicks on a football it will no longer available to other players.
All players win an NFT after completing the first level of the game and then have a chance to win one of a limited edition NFTs in later levels of the game.
For those choosing to sell their NFT, State Farm says it will not take a cut of any of the resales.
The NFTs were designed by Florian, an award-winning generative simulation artist, and Karolina Sereikaite, an award-winning fluid and physics simulation artist.
Participation is further incentivised through a wide selection of prizes. Those who find the digital footballs can win gift cars from Amazon and Starbucks exclusive NFTs, as well as items autographed by the brand’s pair of NFL quarterback athlete ambassadors Aaron Rodgers and Patrick Mahomes (including jerseys and footballs) and branded apparel featuring the two Super Bowl winning quarterbacks.
The participatory online hunt was promoted through a social-first campaign running across State Farm’s digital channels.
The ‘Team State Farm Football Find’ ran from 4 to 7 November and leverages the real world NFL matchup between Rodgers’ Green Bay Packers and Mahomes’ Kansas City Chiefs on 7 November.
“We know insurance isn’t the sexiest category or top of mind,” said State Farm Head of Marketing Alyson Griffin. “We, like a lot of brands, care about that under-40 demographic. So we wanted to show up where those future customers could be.”
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Both quarterback ambassadors are familiar faces in State Farm’s commercials, while the insurer also used its ‘Team State Farm’ platform for a Halloween-themed ‘Football Fright In America’ campaign from 29 October.
.@craigmelvin has the right idea! Join #TeamStateFarm with your Halloween costumes this weekend! https://t.co/zLtfVIhDmR
— State Farm (@StateFarm) October 29, 2021
The brand regularly puts its long-standing partnerships with sports leagues, teams and ambassadors at the heart of its marketing mix and whilst this is State Farm’s first foray into using sports-linked NFT’s, it is not its first virtual marketing campaign. In September, the brand’s ‘Jake from State Farm’ actor/mascot became the first branded, non-playable character in NBA2K – where players can get a skin of the famous red shirt and khakis. The real Jake also participated in an NBA2K tournament hosted on Twitch.
State Farm joins a bandwagon of rights owners, players and brands trying their hand at non-fungible tokens including Manchester City’s ‘Creation’, Sunil Gavaskar’s ‘Always First’ and Stella Artois’s ‘Zed Run Virtual Horse Racing Auction’.
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