State Farm gets personal with new NFL campaign

The return of football season is right around the corner, which means tailgates, buffalo-chicken dip, the revival of your fantasy group chat…and a whole new slate of ads.

For State Farm, NFL advertising is pretty much down to a science. Though the brand isn’t an official league sponsor, it has made multiple appearances in the Super Bowl (including an Ad Meter win) and has for years been an NFL ad regular, running memorable campaigns earlier in the seasons, too.

This year, the brand is returning to the NFL with some familiar plays and faces, as well as adding a few newcomers and strategic shifts to its latest campaign.

“We always have something up our sleeve to keep football fresh,” Alyson Griffin, State Farm’s head of marketing, told Marketing Brew. “We’re not official NFL sponsors the way we are in the NBA, for example, and so we have to move differently to break through.”

Just for you

The new campaign is all about personalization and is anchored in a few different creative approaches to convey the message that State Farm’s personalized coverage and price options differentiate it from other insurance companies, Griffin said.

A couple of the ads go slightly meta, featuring two different people sitting down in front of their TVs to see brand mascot Jake from State Farm explaining that they’re about to see a commercial that’s been personalized specifically for them. (That tech is, unfortunately for marketers, not currently a reality.) The spots are running on YouTube starting today and will appear on more linear and digital platforms, including Thursday Night Football, starting in early September.

The dialogue builds on State Farm’s “longstanding message” that “having insurance isn’t the same as having State Farm insurance,” Griffin told us, which football fans might remember from the brand’s Super Bowl spot this year, while amplifying personalization options.

Directly referencing ad targeting could pose a risk, considering not everyone is comfortable with the use of their personal data for marketing purposes, but Griffin said it’s an essential part of modern marketing.

“We do hyper-target, as most marketers do today, especially because of the distributed, distracted nature of a customer,” she said. “If you don’t give them the message that resonates with the thing that they’re doing online, or the thing that they’ve already signaled that they’re interested in, you just have a tougher time breaking through.”

Draft picks

As is typical for State Farm’s advertising, the spots for the fall feature a lot of football star power. In one of the spots, Kansas City Chiefs quarterback and longtime State Farm partner Patrick Mahomes shows up on a fan’s TV saying, “Hey Mike, it’s your favorite quarterback.” In another ad, Mahomes is joined by Chiefs coach Andy Reid, also a State Farm ad regular who’s “usually a big, fun hit,” Griffin said.

A third ad goes a different route, introducing a new player to the brand’s roster: New York Giants running back Cam Skattebo. Set to the song “Getting to Know You” from The King and I, the commercial shows Jake and Skattebo spending a day together so the brand can get acquainted with the running back. (Much of Skattebo’s trademark head-butting humor ensues.)

State Farm is also dropping ads starring Las Vegas Raiders quarterback Fernando Mendoza and Indiana University head coach Curt Cignetti, who are both new signings for the brand. Cignetti’s spot leans into his iconic hands-on-hips stance on the sidelines, while Mendoza’s, which will come out later in the season, will focus on “his new assignment” in the Raiders’ lineup, Griffin said.

Both provide something of a bridge between college and pro football for State Farm, Griffin said, as Cignetti is a coach in the Big Ten, and the Heisman Trophy-winning Mendoza is a rookie, having gone first in the draft this year after leading the Indiana Hoosiers to victory in his final college season. The campaign will also run against college football games, she added.

As usual, Griffin said her team is tracking KPIs, including lift, engagement, and consideration, as well as resonance and understanding of the personal price plan messaging.

Though the season has yet to kick off, she’s already thinking of what’s to come for State Farm in football.

“You’ll continue to see State Farm move in culture with talent and digitally, and maybe even in person, to continue to break through with that fandom,” Griffin said. “We feel pretty tied to that fandom.”