Geico Re-Writing The Rules Of Branding

If you asked ten Chief Marketing Officers (CMOs) from Fortune 500 or larger companies what they would want you to think about their brand, the chance is they would want you to think consistency. While recalling a few major brands that are in our face each day; McDonalds, Jack-in-the-Box, Budweiser, Pepsi, Coke, Nike, Verizon, Apple, and any automotive company(GM, Ford). We remember a tagline or character from their commercial. We remember a message they always stress or push.

When you see creative from the brands mentioned above, you know you will see someting you've seen in the past. For example, McDonalds will show you the golden arches and maybe Ronald with a happy family. With Verizon, it's the network and their glasses wearing spokesman. Apple these days has the competition between the PC and Mac, or the iPod with colorful backgrounds and shadow dancing people. Which is different from the original days of Apple. And with Jack-in-the-Box, you're guaranteed to see Jack.

The point is that each of these brands have built up over time an image of one main character. They stick with that character and then go back to them from time to time, never straying from the main spokesman or spokeswoman. Even if that brand doesn't show the character in the commercial, they still refer to them somehow and you recall them once the spot is finished.

Geico has completely re-written these rules. If this were a psych test and I told you to give me one word when I showed you the word Geico, odds are you would say either "Gecko" or "Caveman." If I then asked you to recall your favorite commercial then you would have several options to work from, several of which have a different main character but all with the same message.

Over the last three years when Geico first started off as the insurance company with the little talking Gecko, their brand message remained the same. If you saw a billboard with a Gecko on it, then you thought Geico. Now that billboard could have several different messages and you might think the same message.

It appears though the Caveman might be taking over the Gecko's image. Which could cause problems for the insurance company. Geico has spent more money over the past year marketing the caveman, which I believe was an accident in the beginning. The first caveman commercial can be seen here. It featured the caveman as a part of the production crew being offended when the spokesman said, "so easy, a caveman could do it." Then slowly we started seeing more commercials that featured this same message. The reason I call it a potential accident is because I don't think they had any idea that the public would respond in such as positive way to a caveman.

The next Geico commercials were simple follow ups that featured the spokesman trying to make peace with the cavemen. Then this year we have seen more cavemen commercials than Gecko ones. In fact, it almost appears they are trying to quickly scramble Gecko ones to make up for the fact that the caveman has gained so much popularity. Earlier this week I introduced the Caveman's web site. Check it out here and try not to spend 25 minutes there like I did.

We're also seeing the Caveman walking through the airport, working with a therapist, and appearing on a national news program to debate the idea of a caveman.

The Gecko and Caveman though are only two examples of images or faces of Geico we've seen in the past. Late in 2006, Geico introduced a series of spots that featured celebrities, mostly B-list celebrities, interpreting real life Geico insurance stories. They featured Verne Troyer, Little Richard, Burt Bacharach, Don Lafontaine, and Charo.

We've also seen scattered commercials featuring the "Good News" campaign. Check out Tony Little and Dr. Parker.

No other brand goes out of its way to produce such a wide variety of spots. No other brand takes this much risk by using such a wide variety of commercials. No other brand can bring it all back to one cohesive message that we will recall. When we say Geico, you might think of a few different characters or spokesmen, but they have trained you to think, "saving 15% or more or more on car insurance by switching to Geico." This is the new rules of branding. Bringing it all back to one message that sells a product or brand. Geico has become successful not only in entertaining us, but also in building their brand.