Reviving Jake From State Farm

There was dissention among marketing and senior leaders in the company about the direction for future branding. While everyone agreed there was a need to attract Millennials to the brand without alienating the core, older skewing customer, there were uncertainties about a bold new direction.

I designed and moderated expedited iterative focus groups in two major markets to vet the lead directions, both qualitatively and quantitatively. I also designed a survey to run concurrently with the groups, to get a quant read on the creative directions.

The research results indicated that while "like a good neighbor" was ownable and unique, it did not resonate the same with everyone. It also showed that while the character Jake was highly memorable, no one really recalled what the initial Jake looked like (hence, there was some room to evolve). Ultimately the brand refresh was born by pulling key messaging from both creative directions to create a new, more diverse Jake, that is still a good neighbor. Using this new creative direction, the company aired its first ever Superbowl commercial and was recognized as a 2020 Marketer of the Year!