Comments on: GEICO’s Crazy Ad Strategy Breaks the Rules

By: colo

colo — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 06:34:56 +0000

Many of their commercials seem utterly stupid upon first viewing (cavemen, Cash) but end up growing on me. One of my colleagues got a 3-D cardboard cutout of Cash in the mail and started putting it in random places in our breakroom.

By: Blog # 3 Saving more on Theory? « rejectedcookie

Blog # 3 Saving more on Theory? « rejectedcookie — Wed, 05 Oct 2011 02:38:35 +0000

[...] creative though, in trying to get you to remember their name and services. In a poll done by the financial brand, many people have said they remember the Geico commercial and believe that the many campaigns that [...]

By: JN

JN — Sun, 04 Sep 2011 14:46:27 +0000

Agreed, overkill, overexposure, two things, I wonder about what kind of service you get given the amount of money for back to back 24 hours ads over multi channels, someone pays for those ads, guess who. Two, I will flip the channel to another network when these things come on, not returning, someone needs to tell the shows producers, Geico’s has the worst ads with music like Got to give me what I want, want, want, or the three idiots, one playing music on his mobile device, the other two something stupid. I couldn’t tell you the message of the ad when the over loud, flat music, sounds like a cheap 1960′s handheld radio, it is flipped. All I get from it? Geico has bad taste, in music, ads, and seems not to care how intrusive they are. What do they sell? Great company, right? Great ad, right? About the only good thing about them? They pulled their ads from Glenn Bleck.

By: Cameron Paul

Cameron Paul — Thu, 12 May 2011 17:26:54 +0000

Can you say overkill ! Oh yeah, and overexposure. Enough is enough. Almost every media, TV, radio, You Tube has Geico commercials. I actually turn them down or change the channel i am so tired of hearing them. Anyone else?

By: butch cole

butch cole — Wed, 26 Jan 2011 16:08:10 +0000

Any company that foolishly wastes as much money on ads as geico, ( the old failed government employees ins co) couldn’t possibly have good insurance. Plus gearing the ads toward fools is counter productive for an insurance co..When my contract for tv service is up I will cancel pay tv because of so much ad time. 16 minutes out of every half hour is ridiculous. I will subscribe to netflix and pay to watch ads no more.

By: 7 Steps to Find Your Brand’s Personality | The Financial Brand: Marketing Insights for Banks & Credit Unions

Sun, 24 Oct 2010 18:57:02 +0000

[...] 4. Ideal Spokesperson If your organization could choose anyone in the world as its spokesperson, who would it be and why? Would you pick someone from your local community? Your CEO? A fictional character like Snoopy from the cartoon-strip Peanuts, as MetLife has done? A hero like Chesley Sullenberger? GEICO Insurance has at least two: the gecko and the cavemen. [...]

By: Editor

Editor — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 17:11:42 +0000

“15 minutes can save you 15%” is certainly one of GEICO’s brand messages. But they have others as well. They have ads talking about how using GEICO’s website to save money is “so easy a caveman can do it.” There are ads reminding people that GEICO insures motorcycles, RVs and other toys. They have ads for their roadside assistance program.

What GEICO has decided is that it is okay to use a different creative vehicle for each message it wants to convey.

By: David Kline

David Kline — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 16:53:09 +0000

If you think about it, the Geico campaigns are now more about the advertising than the product. And that’s ok with Geico, no doubt, because the only message they care about is “15 minutes can save you 15%”.

The main task of the creative team, at this point, is not really branding, but entertaining, and it doesn’t really matter how they do it anymore. They have proven that.

By: Angie D

Angie D — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 18:31:35 +0000

I can recall pretty much every single Geico ad mentioned. But will I actually buy Geico insurance? Probably not. To me they don’t take themselves seriously enough to convince me that they’ll take my accident seriously.

Obviously something is working for them though. Kudo’s on doing something different.

By: Ed Coffey

Ed Coffey — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 16:50:10 +0000

The factor that seems to be missing from the negative critiques of Geico’s approach is that branding theory goes out the window when a big budget keeps the playing field uneven. Multiple front attacks are great when combined with saturation.

By: Robbie Wright

Robbie Wright — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 20:38:18 +0000

ALFAC has pulled off the same thing with their talking duck. But as you mentioned, it takes a lot of ad buys to make the message stick.

By: Robert Lommers

Robert Lommers — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 20:16:51 +0000

I also liked (and missing in the overview) the numa numa guy spinn off with the gecko in the back on youtube http://bit.ly/mIAu

By: SRG

SRG — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 14:57:59 +0000

It is interesting how their strategy goes against every branding rule we’ve ever learned, but it does seem to work for them. Many of their commercials seem utterly stupid upon first viewing (cavemen, Kash) but end up growing on me. One of my colleagues got a 3-D cardboard cutout of Kash in the mail and started putting it in random places in our breakroom. The day I saw it on top of our water cooler I started laughing out loud!