Summary

Original source:
http://www.usatoday.com/money/advertising/adtrack/2005-01-24-geico_x.htm

Details

• The marketers at Geico have a big challenge trying to sell something that many consumers view as a necessary evil: car insurance.
• They have a bigger challenge trying to sell their ad campaign ideas to Geico's ultimate customer: billionaire Wall Street investor Warren Buffett, known as the "Oracle of Omaha" for his stock-picking skills.
• Geico ads show just how fast customers can save money on car insurance.
• Buffett didn't get to be one of the world's richest people without knowing a little something about marketing.
• And Berkshire Hathaway shares didn't rise to their current price of $90,000 without the company knowing a thing or two about how to promote itself and its holdings.
• Berkshire Hathaway's Web site is known for its modest, bare-bones approach.
• But prominent on the home page is an ad link to Geico, along with the auto insurer's toll-free, 24-hour number.
• Company executives say that during his biannual meetings with the Geico team, Buffett always asks the most important question when it comes to the advertising: Does it work?
• A spur-of-the-moment creation by Geico's longtime ad shop, The Martin Agency in Richmond, Va., the lizard has been a mainstay of the company's advertising since 1999.
• But Martin has been shaking things up lately by alternating the gecko with a mini-campaign showing things that can be done within 15 minutes --- the time it takes for a consumer to get a rate quote from Geico.
• That means consumers see two of these spots back-to-back, rather than a single 30-second commercial.
• Only 14% of consumers in Ad Track think the ads are "very effective," well below the 21% survey average.

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