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Geico Advertising Tries To Deliver Sense Of Safety In Shaky Times

AP file photo

Now, confronting consumer anxiety over the economy, the giant insurer Geico is rolling out a secret ingredient of its own: Warren E. Buffett.

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By STUART ELLIOTT

The New York Times

Published: February 21, 2009

Updated:

For years, prosaic consumer products sought to puff up their appeal by boasting they contained "secret" ingredients that improved their performance. Colgate toothpaste had Gardol, Dial soap had AT-7 and Certs breath mints had Retsyn.

Now, confronting consumer anxiety over the economy, the giant insurer Geico is rolling out a secret ingredient of its own: Warren E. Buffett. The financier controls Berkshire Hathaway, the company that has owned Geico for more than a decade.

Buffett is mentioned, along with Berkshire Hathaway, in a campaign for Geico that offers the brand's familiar gecko in a businesslike vein. The campaign, running along with the company's regular ads, is by a longtime Geico agency, the Martin Agency in Richmond, Va., part of the Interpublic Group of Cos.

The Message: Financial Stability

In advertisements appearing in newspapers and magazines, the gecko wears horn-rimmed glasses.

"Presenting a straightforward and serious talk about the nation's third-largest car insurance company," the headline on one print ad reads. "From a spokesman who's not wearing any pants."

That ad describes Geico as "a financially stable company that's here for the long run" and "a wholly-owned subsidiary of Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway."

A second print ad starts off with this headline: "Warren Buffett and the gecko. They go together like pie and chips." (The joke refers to the gecko's persona as a jaunty cockney.)

"Since Mr. Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway acquired Geico in 1996," the text begins, "he and the gecko have seen Geico grow to become the third-largest personal auto insurer in the nation." (Only State Farm and Allstate are larger.)

"Little wonder why," it continues, "Standard & Poor's has consistently awarded Geico an AAA rating for financial strength - its highest grade."

There are three TV commercials in the campaign, which started in December. Though none refers to Berkshire Hathaway or Buffett, they discuss Geico's size and stability as qualities that mean consumers can trust the company.

The campaign is among many that have appeared since the financial crisis began in mid-September.

Banks, brokerage firms, insurers and other financial institutions are falling all over one another to reassure worried customers on touchy topics such as safety, security and strength.

The Geico ads are a sign of our times, said Allen P. Adamson, managing director of the New York office of Landor Associates, a brand and corporate identity agency that is part of the WPP Group.

"Everyone's cutting prices; everything's on sale," Adamson said, so the regular Geico pitch of using the company to save money on automotive insurance policies no longer is differentiating.

"Brands need to go beyond a compelling offer to give customers reassurance they'll be here tomorrow," he said. In other words, "If you have Warren Buffett, use him."

It's About Separating From The Pack

Steve Bassett, creative director for the Geico account at Martin, rejected a suggestion that featuring Buffett and Berkshire Hathaway in the campaign is the marketing equivalent of Defcon 1. Rather, it is a way to "deliver a message about stability and reliability," he said, that will stand out amid a spate of campaigns from financial institutions.

"As you look at all the ads out there that have the same tone, very somber, trying to be reassuring, they all blur together," he said.

Including the gecko in the campaign will help distinguish it from ads that approach the economy "in a gloom-and-doom way," Bassett said.

"It puts a smile on your face," he added, "which is not such a bad thing right now."

The TV ads are more lighthearted than the print versions. They show the gecko reporting to a Geico executive who is coaching it on a less frivolous approach to wooing customers. In one spot, he hands the gecko a tiny suit, saying, "Looking a bit more businesslike might help."

In a second spot, the executive seeks to demonstrate how consumers "want value for their dollar" by showing the gecko the first dollar he ever earned.

Alas, the gecko has spent it in a vending machine, buying a package of crisps (potato chips).

In a third commercial, which began appearing recently, the executive tells the gecko, "Trust is key when talking about Geico," and he suggests they take part in a trust exercise: "I fall backwards and you catch me."

The spot ends with the sound of the executive falling to the ground, uncaught, and a plaintive "Oh, dear" from the gecko.

Jonah Disend, chief executive at Redscout, a brand strategy company in New York owned by MDC Partners, praised the campaign's approach.

"It's telling you Geico is the real deal," Disend said, "but still the company you know."

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