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Dr Hamish McPharlin, CCO Element Human
Insurance is a tricky category. It’s not “sexy,” it’s really hard to differentiate, and if someone needs it, it’s bad news. People don’t know when they’ll need it, so you need to hammer your communications constantly. Your audience might need a policy right away, or not at all, so you need to hit all parts of the brand funnel at once. The last category you’d expect to drive emotional engagement with creators? State Farm begs to differ.
As Head of Marketing, Alyson Griffin will freely tell you, State Farm doesn’t have a big marketing budget. But it’s been punching above its weight on social media with Jake — the main character in their ads, now turned creator. I won’t go into the whole backstory of how “Jake from State Farm” came to be, as that has been well covered by Creator Vision Founder Jamie Gutfreund in her Forbes article. But as creator marketing continues to grow, Jake is proving very useful for State Farm indeed.
We teamed up with Jamie to measure their latest foray into creator marketing, with a series of low-fi, camera-phone collabs on Instagram. In one, Jake teams up with comedy creator Madison Humphrey for a backyard wedding gone wrong. In another, he collaborates with comedy creator Daniel Labelle, manifesting the concept of “insurance” in increasingly madcap feats of physical comedy. I’m sure Daniel’s 8.1M follower base didn’t hurt either.
We tested both of these using Element Human’s measurement framework — measuring Attention, Emotion, Memory, and Brand Uplift. What we found was an incredible emotional reaction. The low-fi, basic production values typical of creators on IG/TT worked well for Jake, who is normally found in more polished production environments. The collaborations worked well too — leaning into the style and format that the creators themselves are known for.
@DanielleLabelle
With Daniel Labelle, we saw huge spikes in Happiness (Yellow curve) and Surprise (White), as Daniel and Jake romped about the house and neighborhood, bailing each other out of increasingly silly scenarios. That “blue” emotion curve is actually Sadness — we often see a Sadness or Fear spike at nerve-wracking moments, which is again a positive sign that the audience is engaged in the story.
@Madison_Humphrey
With Madison Humphrey, State Farm again leaned into the creator’s organic storytelling style, with Jake smoothly integrating as the neighbor in a backyard wedding scenario. The audience again experienced spikes in Happiness (Yellow curve) and Surprise (White) as the wedding gracefully slid off the rails with a missing officiator and a misbehaving DJ. Thank goodness Jake is there to save the day.
Here’s the most startling thing about these State Farm creator videos: there is no call to action, no end card, and in fact, no branding at all. The brand message is carried through recognition of the ubiquitous Jake himself. This is quite stunning, as the campaign still delivered a +20% increase in Consideration and a +15% increase in Intent to Purchase for State Farm.
On top of that, we often see emotional engagement driving long-term memory associations. The vast majority of those exposed to advertising don’t respond to the call to action right away, and so most purchases have no clear link back to a campaign. So “memory banking for later” is an important but rarely measured aspect of branding. Element Human measures it using an Implicit Association Test.
In the case of State Farm, we saw positive increases across the board in creating memory associations with State Farm. Madison Humphrey created associations with Trust and Reliability — both personality traits prominently displayed by Jake in the storyline as he saves the wedding from disaster. Daniel Labelle drove associations principally with being Innovative — again, a reflection of the fun and creative way that Jake and Daniel carried out their storyline.
So Jake is a living embodiment of the virtues of the brand — his behavior and traits reflect the brand in a substantive and measurable way for State Farm’s target audience.
State Farm has brand equity literally baked into the character, giving them an advantage in their marketing. Jake is able to over-deliver on metrics, delivering strong gains on a modest budget. He’s also versatile — State Farm is able to put him with creators, but also at showcases and events, allowing him to slip in and out of cultural and societal conversations while bringing the brand message with him.
It’s a fascinating dynamic — and even more so that it’s allowing something as “unsexy” as insurance to not only survive in the fast-paced world of creative marketing, but to thrive and deliver an impressive showcase of what’s possible.
