Most companies spend millions of dollars to make their brand memorable to consumers with one single ad campaign. However, one company is defying all advertising rules: GEICO.
GEICO is currently running FOUR different ad campaigns at the same time. Out of the four campaigns, they have three different branded characters and three different campaign messages. Is this a new strategy for advertisers or just sensory overload and a waste of advertising money?
The oldest campaign that’s currently running features the Gecko. I’m sure you’ve seen them – the punch line is “15 minutes could save you 15% or more on car insurance.”
Another very popular campaign they have running is the Caveman ads with the slogan “So easy a caveman can do it.” These promote the ease of their online interface as well as their call-in service.
One of the newer branded characters is Kash. This is a stack of dollar bills with googly eyes on top of them. Kash awkwardly shows up in the scene to hint that “That’s the money you could be saving with GEICO.”
The latest ad campaign from The Martin Agency, the brains behind these ads, is Rhetorical Questions. The reporter in the scene asks “Could switching to GEICO save you 15% or more on car insurance?” He then follows with a rhetorical question like “Does Charlie Daniels play a mean fiddle?” or “Does Elmer Fudd have trouble with the letter R?”
In any one given night you will likely see all of these different ads on television. It has to make you wonder if this is sensory overload. Does seeing all these campaigns, running concurrently, make GEICO commercials feel like a swift punch in the face every time one comes on? Each campaign has a different message with a different character and sometimes they are featured one right after the other.
