Memorable But Annoying

Don’t do this with your ad budget

I had to buy renter’s insurance today; exciting I know. After a few minutes, I had quotes lined up from the top brands: Geico, Farmer’s, Progressive, Nationwide. Before comparing the brands I struck one company immediately because I suddenly remembered their ads.

Progressive Insurance has a memorable but terribly annoying creative ad campaign. Her name is Flo and her whole shtick is being intrusive, loud, and obnoxious, essentially being the embodiment of an early-2000s banner ad.

The problem is that insurance companies have mountains of cash to keep a subpar ad campaign like this alive. It can be viewed as a success in that it’s memorable however, it falls short. Stepping in dog excrement is memorable, but not something to cherish.

Geico spends over $1 billion a year on their marketing. That’s why when you read Geico you imagined their cute gecko and their slogan: “15% or less…” The marketing department at Progressive Insurance has a similar spend. They should put their massive ad budget in making niche creative content to specific demographics. A gecko is unique because it doesn’t a race or gender to relate to, it’s simply the mascot. Putting one person (like Flo) behind your ad campaign is an opportunity lost. The costs have never been lower to make great art.

If you have a business with an ad budget, go make unique creative ads and please diversify your creative. Find the niche audiences that’ll be your ideal customer and run Facebook ads and Instagram Story ads to that demo.

Remember one other thing: don’t be annoying.

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