In State Farm’s latest campaign, brand character Jake from State Farm explains that having insurance isn't the same as having State Farm — it’s like having Jason Bateman when you need Batman.
A hero spot brings that idea to life in hilarious fashion, demonstrating how the actor is a not-quite-dark knight when facing off against a rogues gallery that includes Two-Face, Poison Ivy and Catwoman, as played by pop star SZA. In this version of Gotham City, popular Twitch streamer Kai Cenat films the Joker as he escapes a crime scene and social media star Jordan “the Stallion” Howlett waits by the Bat Signal like Commissioner Gordon.
If the high-octane 60-second ad sounds like a Super Bowl spot, that’s because it was intended to be until State Farm reversed its plans to advertise during the big game. Instead, the insurer chose to focus on customers impacted by the wildfires in the Los Angeles area while facing backlash over previous coverage decisions.
Instead of throwing the baby out with the bath water, State Farm pivoted. The campaign, which was developed with agency Highdive, will now debut on March 15 during the Big 10 Men’s Conference tournament and will continue to air throughout and beyond March Madness. In addition, Cenat tonight (March 11) will debut a long-form version of the spot during a Twitch livestream that brand mascot Jake will also be part of.
Marketing Dive caught up with State Farm Head of Marketing Alyson Griffin about the creative process behind the campaign, its shift from sports to pop culture and more.
The following interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.
MARKETING DIVE: There's a lot going on with this campaign. Can you share the creative process behind the spot and this world?
ALYSON GRIFFIN: We were looking to approach 2025, and looking at the competitive landscape and the situation on the ground with spend. We are one of the smaller spends of the big insurers, so we know that we have to break through and punch above our weight. Ideas that are outsized in their ability to capture attention were one thing [we were looking for]. The other was from a business realities perspective: We have a really important story to tell, especially right now, in the season that the country finds itself in, and that is, there's having insurance, and then there's having State Farm.
The other thing was we're broadly targeting; this is a general market campaign. It kicks off in March Madness, but it's not a March Madness campaign — it's going to last, and it's across all of our media. We needed to be able to have flexibility in the storytelling, to target a broad swath of people.
You’ve got Jason Bateman, who Gen Xers grew up with; Kai Cenat, the biggest streamer in the world; SZA, who’s in fashion, music, a movie, the Super Bowl and on tour with Kendrick Lamar; Jordan the Stallion, a social media influencer; the cultural phenomenon that is the Batman franchise. It was an easy construct that we could play with over time that could break through generationally depending on where we were targeting.
State Farm’s marketing has had a focus on sports for a few years. What considerations come with shifting toward pop culture?
Being able to get into cultural moments differently [is important]. We've got to really be smart about where we show up and how we show up, so that we can break through with the limited dollars that we have and stay true to who we're trying to target.
Kai Cenat was on “The Tonight Show” with Jimmy Fallon this week, and on ESPN the next morning with Stephen Smith. We give up some control to Kai Cenat, we give up some control to Jordan the Stallion on using his style on his channels on Instagram and TikTok. It's all about being in culture, understanding who matters and who's breaking through, and how we can reach different audiences with the message that we need.
State Farm pulled back from advertising in the Super Bowl during the Los Angeles wildfires, but this definitely feels like a big game campaign. How do you stay agile and pivot when facing factors outside your control?
You said it: This was our Super Bowl spot. We took a moment and picked this March time frame because March Madness is a culturally relevant moment, with a broad audience with a similar [cumulative] eyeball size as the Super Bowl. We have all these assets — the teaser phase, the spot, from the long-form down to cut downs, and then a sustained phase. It gave that storytelling breathing room to keep that spot fresh. It matches culturally, it matches demographically.
How are you approaching the channel mix on this effort and the way that different assets live in different places?
It’s a general market campaign. It'll be everywhere. We will continue to have digital, audio, linear, social and influencers on their own channels. This is a long period of time campaign, so we will continue to use the full mix of our media buying power to continue to get this message out, and of course, we'll continue to evolve it. That was the beauty of this umbrella message of “there's having insurance and there's having State Farm” for us to be able to then nest where it makes sense over the course of a year.
Don't forget our agents on the ground. There are more State Farm agent offices in the United States than Starbucks and McDonald's. They're on the ground in each of their communities with their own social channels as well as out-of-home, and they'll be armed with the messages as well.
