Business Objective:
With State Farm losing share among millennials because it’s seen as their “parents’ brand,” we aimed to drive their brand consideration through awareness and preference.
Campaign Goal:
Inspired by the cultural insight that people often dress up as Jake from State Farm for Halloween, we sought to:
Dressing like Jake from State Farm was already a thing, but this past Halloween, The Marketing Arm (TMA) made it the thing. To do this, we looked for every opportunity to spark chatter around Jake’s iconic look.
We launched this social media blitz with original paid content that featured fun, spooky scenarios like Jake meeting his khaki-donning doppelganger.
Extending the conversation across social platforms, we created a Pinterest pin that showed people how to dress like Jake for Halloween. We then showcased user-generated content with followers dressed like Jake on his Instagram Stories. These beloved “Jake-a-likes” have transcended the Halloween season and become a recurring series on Jake’s page.
We struck conversation gold as our followers started commenting on how much Jake looked like Mike Johnson, a fan favorite on The Bachelorette. Within a week, we brought the two together for an unexpected Halloween collaboration, including thumb-stopping Instagram content and an unscripted conversation on Jake from State Farm’s first Instagram Live.
Even candy bars couldn’t resist becoming Jake. To make our campaign even more seasonally relevant, we jumped on the opportunity to cross-promote with Snickers, who created a custom Jake Snickers bar. We also co-developed Twitter banter between brands, created “Would you rather?”-inspired Instagram Stories, and even placed product in our content.
With agility at the heart of our strategy, we produced the entire campaign — including content creation, talent booking, and brand partnerships — in just four weeks.
In only three weeks, we increased brand awareness with over 22M impressions. We successfully engaged millennials above benchmark engagement rates and authentically grew Jake’s social audience by 8,400 followers.
Paid Results:
Owned Results:
Earned Results:
