We Heart You Progressive Insurance (for reals)
The semi-yearly FYMD business development meetings with the executive committee always seem to take place at our FYMD Hualalai, Hawaii Island offices - apparently they get more done in a “trade winds” environment. The net-net of the April 2022 meeting seems to be that our outrageous consulting fees could be increased and our literally gross margin could go even higher. Also, apparently they are installing a new suite of executive washrooms and each Toto Neorest Washlet is about $10K. Whatever.
Now that we’re on the hook for the ne plus ultra of commodes, we better have a bulletproof strategy to take this shakedown, er price hike, er increase in service, to our wonderful client list. And there is no better way to swallow that pill than by buttering up one of our best clients in a really interesting category - and a couple times a year we also downsize the snark and upside the props. Warm and fuzzies for everyone!
Anywho, we love Progressive Insurance - and we’re pretty sure (wink, wink) that it was Progressive and not another insurance giant with an animated cockney lizard that came up with one of the greatest unlocks in all of marketing history: Insurance is funny.
Back in the day, insurance marketing consisted of a Rock, a Neighbor, a Big Deer and Good Hands - But not anymore my friend…that ship has sailed, right Jake?
So, the marketers at Progressive have developed a suite of ads across multiple different genres, that are culturally relevant, activated within different communications platforms and airing literally nonstop - in our unbiased opinion, all of this is incredibly smart (minus Baker Mayfield)… we love Progressive, you’re the bestest clients!
The Insurance Juggernaut:
Everybody needs insurance - so the target audience is pretty much everyone - and as most people need more than one type of insurance, there are multiple opportunities to get your current customers to increase their basket size (bundles!). According to IbisWorld and the internet, just the car insurance market in the US is over $315Bn annually - If you include all the other insurance products it’s freakin’ trillions - so you can see how they afford all those commercials.
Table Stakes:
Acquisition and Activation - that’s all that’s happening here. Acquisition speaks for itself, but for the insurance industry the activation part is really about churn - each customer is so valuable that so much of the marketing is about keeping them paying and making them feel ok that you keep raising our rates, we mean their rates. And since premiums are up for renewal every single day of the year, reducing churn means being top of mind at all times and that equals frequency, lots of it.
Competitive Insight:
The category as a whole has been transformed by the “Progressive: Insurance Is FunnyTM” unlock - Flo spawned the Gecko who begat the Emu and so on and so for, so sayeth the FYMD client appreciation team. Then there are all of the agent based companies with Jake and Peyton and some other quarterback and a point guard and a country singer…but really there’s only one Jamie - and that’s what cements Progressive’s place in the FYMD Marketing Hall of Fame*
*The Hall of Fame will be invoiced as a separate line item under “consulting fees”, please let us know if Stacy the FYMD finance intern needs to speak with procurement for a code, or special handshake for billing purposes.
Creative Appreciation:
Whew…all that just to talk about one ad! The FYMD SEO team is probably Slacking each other high fives right now.
Satire is hard, and using VO to explain what you’re selling against a set of visuals that have a very thin link with what you’re selling is really hard. See there’s this resort called Sandals…
And then Jamie is playing steel drums in the living room…
Game show…
Kumite…
Muy Thai…
And everything is right with the world - even Jason the intern, has a Jamie bobble head on his standing desk.
Normally, the FYMD creative excellence team would have some “feedback” about the above ground pool, but apparently word has come down that Progressive has decided to sponsor the expansion of the executive washrooms in the Hualalai offices, into executive washrooms and spa. So we love the above ground pool, it’s so modular and easy to remove when you want to put in a pickle ball court.
What The FYMD Staff Has To Say:
The FYMD Creative Excellence team returned from their offsite in Todo Santos, Baja, Mexico and have sobered up just enough to discuss the newest inductee in the FYMD HoF - Progressive Insurance.
They have come up with a few mostly coherent thoughts to mark the occasion:
1: C.R.E.A.M - The only way this ad is even possible is years of consistent messaging and long term experimentation. Progressive has spent years creating a signature style, making these characters and simple messages part of the culture - mostly because they’ve got the cash to do so…and pay us! dolla dolla bill ya’ll.
2: G.O.A.T. - Client leadership clearly trusts their teams because making this ad takes marketing balls, something nearly extinct in the marketing community (unrelated - big ups Rakim!)
3. L.$.D. - There is a lot of creativity at work here and someone deserves some props - FYMD will wager their outrageous consulting fee that the agency submitted this for some awards A$AP.
Jamie, call us, let’s do lunch on you.