Originally published February 7 2005
Geico car insurance ads loved by audiences; but owner Warren Buffet wants proof they really work
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
GEICO insurance's famously wacky brand of advertising seems to have earned, at least a tentative, thumbs up from audiences in a recent national poll. But Warren Buffet, the owner of GEICO's parent company, will be meeting with company managers soon, and he wants proof that the ads are effective to GEICO's bottom line. In a USA Today consumer poll, 26 percent of audience members in their 30s said they like the GEICO ads "a lot."
- 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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