This week America prepares to celebrate its independence – a holiday that reminds of us of our freedoms, our opportunities for prosperity, and our culture of defending the American dream. For some, a natural disaster (or major bad luck) can deflate that dream and challenge our perseverance. State Farm took :60 to remind us that we are not alone. State Farm “Names” earns the highest Ace Score and outperformed its competitive set the most of any ad to debut last week – thereby earning the rare double. Here’s how:
State Farm’s “Names” used stunning images and video of natural disasters and property damage to relay a story of support as it named off recent hurricanes followed by the names of its care agents.
Consumers found the message very powerful. Of the 500+ people surveyed, 302 felt compelled to leave an optional verbatim response. Looking behind the prominent use of words like “good” (21%) and “great” (11%) are more telling words like “powerful” (3%), attention (6%), need (4%). Riddled throughout the responses are sentiments of appreciation for the visuals (4%) and validation that State Farm’s message (3%) was delivered.
The visuals and the music are also noted by respondents as attributes for how the ad captured Attention – one of the ad’s strongest components at 22% above norm. But perhaps more telling of the successful delivery of the message is the Change and Desire scores, 13% and 16.5% above norm respectively.
Insurance brands do not frequent the Ad of the Week podiums with State Farm being only the second brand to earn an award this year – and to sweep both the top scoring (Ace Score 659) and category overachiever (22% above norm) titles is a stellar accomplishment. Just last month Progressive’s “Service with Flo” won ad of the week with an ad also focused on customer service in the claims department but in their case, with the brand’s cheerful franchise character as opposed to State Farm’s more dramatic approach.
The approach worked well across all demographics, with an interesting skew toward older women and younger men.
Congratulations State Farm to an ad well crafted.
Watch this year’s winning Ads of the Week by Category Overachievers.
