Marketing in the News...

 

For this blog I chose the new Geico ad called "The    Nightmare". I chose this article because, as weird as it might seem, when I was little, I was very intrigued by the Geico commercials with the gecko as their mascot. I knew nothing about Geico or what they were even refiring too at the time, but I really like their mascot. So, when I saw this article about them bringing back the iconic Caveman, I thought it was interesting because I had never seen an ad for Geico with the Caveman before. 

The ad is of a Caveman who is scared awake because of a recurring nightmare about the 'it's so easy a caveman can do it' tagline. This tagline was introduced about two decades ago. They planned on releasing the ad on NBC Sunday Night Football on December 24 and through a placement on YouTube Live. 

GEICO | The Caveman's Nightmare (youtube.com) 

Back in 2004, the Caveman was a big hit. It caught everyone's attention immediately. This was due to the mascots dry, edgy and sometimes biting tone. "That’s part of why it stuck in people’s memories,” says Neel Williams who is the group creative director at The Martin Agency, in a statement. 

Neel says that when you introduce an ad icon like the Caveman you can't take it lightly. That's why they selected the right entertainment-driven idea to complement Geico's ease-of-use messaging. With everything working together smoothly they were able to bring back the Caveman better than before, as a dramatic, intimate and relatable to humans.

The Caveman mascot was so popular that they were starred on sitcoms. The show was later canceled, so Geico ran an ad during Super Bowl 42nd in 2008 that featured cavemen using the tagline. 

Geico's value proposition is a mixture of individuals who value affordable and convenient in their insurance choices. They are all about trying to help their audience feel like they can do it and it's not a hard move in life. 

The little bit of humor displayed within their advertisements helps welcome in those individuals showing them that signing up isn't scary and that its super easy. This is how they are so popular and successful is because having that humor is a comforting thing. As a young adult (like me) it's scary and stressful trying to set up your insurance. Geico makes it look super easy with the humor. Hints their tagline, "it's so easy a caveman can do it".

Geico is a very unique organization. They use things like the gecko or the caveman for instants and use them to grab people's attention. It's an eye catcher. When something catches your eye, your mind tends to not forget about it. Thats their goal. Their goal is to get their organization to stick in your head and make you think about using them. In this article for example they talk about how using Geico is so easy a caveman can do it. They use a punchy tagline along with the caveman character to get people's attention and remember them.

Their marketing approach was a good one. They were able to make Geico huge! Geico was a success because they believed that their organization could be what people needed. And it was. They found out what people wanted and were able to give it to them. Simon Sinek once said, "people don't buy what you do, they buy why you do it". Geico did this. The fact that they believed in what they sold, was the reason they were successful. However, just because they are successful doesn't mean they don't have some challenges they have to face.

Geico has had some challenges over the years but recently they have laid off a sizeable portion of their marketing department and is putting its 25-year account with Horizon Media. This is due because they are undergoing a major change. The world is changing and Geico is having to change with it. The historic ad spenders' businesses are being hurt due to the ongoing troubles in the insurance industry. Geicos new head chief is working on trying to fix this.

The US economy is adding more and more jobs each month. Therefore, industries are being affected heavily by inflation like insurance and finances. In August, insurance and finance layoffs doubled from 12,000 in July to 23,000. This is big problem for Geico because some of the largest advertisers are cutting budgets and rethinking their marketing strategies because of the advertising industry's troubles and fears of a recession.

Overall, I think their organization was great and their marketing techniques are spot on. However, if this were my organization, I would change just a couple things. One thing I would change would be the mascot. In the beginning, Geico had the caveman. Later on, and still, they have the gecko. They are in the process of bringing back the caveman, which is great but what if they found a totally different mascot? For example, what if they did a monkey or a sheep (I have heard sheep were kind of dumb creatures). They say that the caveman is sort of dumb, why can't they do the same with a sheep or with an intelligent animal like the monkey?

Something I learned from this assignment was that just because a business or organization is successful, doesn't mean that still can't run into some challenges along the way. Geico has ran into lots of challenges over the years and is still one of the top insurance organizations in the country. 

Article URL:     Geico thaws Caveman on road to the Super Bowl | Marketing Dive

Organization URL:  An Insurance Company For Your Car And More | GEICO