How many geckos and cavemen have you seen lately?

One of my favorite commercials right now is the Geico campaign with cavemen. It really doesn’t get any better than a caveman in a psychiatrist’s office wanting to put his mom on speaker phone. And, I can even hear the music of the commercial with the “airport scene” running through my head. I don’t know if you call that branding or brainwashing.

At any rate, I found it interesting to learn that Geico’s $500 million advertising campaign has paid off with big dividends, according to a recent Advertising Age article (subscription required). With an increase in advertising spending by 75 percent since 2004, Geico now ranks number one in the industry for new customer acquisition. The next biggest spender was Progressive with a $265 million advertising campaign. Of the top four players—State Farm, Allstate, Progressive and Geico—Geico was the only company that achieved double-digit growth in the last four years. It is obvious that there is a pay-off for advertising spending (and having a solid brand). It is important to also remember that while advertising provides the big bang, public relations is a slow and steady course to tell the full story and build a relationship with the target audience. After the cavemen are dead we will always remember the public relations brand that has been ingrained in our consciousness. And, even a caveman can figure that out.

The power of social media

With social media, as with many things, practice makes progress. We are excited to take an important step forward with this blog and website, and I think Karen’s recent Tallahassee Democrat column on social media makes some important points:

Social media is all about sharing, and this can actually lead to (good) results. Yesterday I came across a video from this year’s Andy Awards, which gave an overview of Volkswagen’s “safe happens” campaign. The television ads caused a huge media stir for their depiction of shocking car crashes where the victims, in their trusty Volkswagen, would emerge unharmed thanks to the car’s impressive safety features.

The campaign extended onto the internet, where users could create custom Volkswagen Jettas and crash them into various virtual objects (trees, buildings, UFOs…)—hardly the image car makers are used to giving themselves. The media was outraged, and asked the question: Had Volkswagen gone to far? The dialogue continued, as the ad team struck back with a new ad featuring two women debating the media’s assertion that they had “gone to far”—only to get slammed into by an SUV half-way through their conversation.

Volkswagen’s campaign highlights the importance of integrating social media efforts with traditional advertising and public relations. And amid all the hype, the car maker’s previously desperate sales increased by 20 percent.

Want to know more about social media strategy? Check out Karen’s recent column featured in the Tallahassee Democrat.