Geico Slogans and Marketing Taglines
The Government Employees Insurance Company (Geico) is one the largest Insurance companies in the USA. It is based in Maryland and is currently ranked as the second largest auto insurer in the United States.
Founded in 1926 specifically to provide auto insurance for federal government employees, it has risen to become one of the best-known brands in the United States. This is due in no small measure to its marketing campaigns and Taglines.
For years Geico has been known for its slogan – “Fifteen minutes could save you 15% or more on car insurance,” and its Gecko mascot which voiced the slogan.
But recently Geico has moved away from this and changed to a new Geico Insurance tagline.
Geico – A time for change
This year Geico announced a change in its advertising and marketing campaigns and premiered a new Geico Insurance Slogan – “Geico: Real Service, Real Savings.”
Geico advertising campaigns have always been known as being creative and engaging. It is these campaigns that have played a large part in driving them to their current high-ranking status as one of America’s biggest insurers.
Forbes magazine pointed out recently that Geico’s success has come from its ability to offer consumer independence at exceptionally low rates. But the part that Geico’s successful marketing campaigns have played in getting this across cannot be overstated. It has been a crucial aspect in their success story.
Not only have Geico been putting their message across through traditional channels like television, Geico has also moved to newer platforms. Online services like YouTube and Hulu now run frequent Geico advertisements. And Geico has been clever here too. The five second portion of the video that is compulsory viewing before the viewer can close it, contains all of Geico’s Bullet points. The focus in these first few seconds contains the keywords of the main message, ‘savings’ and ‘service.’
Geico also has a strong Social Media presence, and frequently posts multimedia campaigns on the likes of twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. It is this blend of focus and saturation tactics that keeps the brand at the forefront.
Why Geico Focusses so much on Marketing.
Geico is mainly an online insurer, this means that without the bricks and mortar of high street branches to ensure brand awareness, they have had to be creative. The Geico marketing strategy is a casebook in how to successfully get your message across without having a physical presence.
Since 2013 the advertising campaigns they have commissioned have been innovative, fun and enormously successful. In 2016 their ‘Unskippable ad campaign was named Ad Age’s campaign of the year, it also claimed the Film Grand Prix from the Festival of Creativity at the Cannes Film Festival.
Not only does Geico have clever advertising and marketing policies, their targeting of these campaigns is also cleverly thought out and executed. This tight focus on the appropriate market segment has paid dividends for Geico and helped it grasp the huge share of the market it currently claims.
Geico Advertising: Expense or Investment?
Geico spends an astounding amount on advertising. In 2019 alone their expenditure was approaching $2 billion. An increase of 12% from the previous year when the figure was an equally mind-numbing $1.73 billion. This has attracted criticism from some quarters. A representative of the Consumer Federation, J. Robert Hunter is on record as stating that it drives insurance rates up as every cent of this budget is ultimately charged to the consumer.
Geico have countered this claim by stating that they would rather invest in advertising and technology than on new marble floors and doors. The belief is that by concentrating on marketing and technology they are in fact, keeping costs down.
To get an idea of the scale of the spending, take the figures from their 30-second Super-Bowl commercial from 2015, this cost an astounding $150,000 a second to air. It would be unfair to criticize Geico solely for this spending, they operate in a market where insurance companies spend 8% more on advertising than any other American industry.
It would be counterproductive to Geico if advertising costs skyrocketed to the point that it affected the rates they charge. They are certainly more than aware that their business model is based on offering low-cost products. If policy costs were raised to cover fancy advertising campaigns, then it wouldn’t matter how clever the new Geico slogan was, brand loyalty would quickly diminish.
For now, the balance seems to be right and Geico’s policy of treating advertising as an investment is paying off for them. Since the 2013 campaigns started, the budget allocated to marketing has nearly doubled. It is this spending that has seen their meteoric rise, of course having Warren Buffet helping to bankroll the spending certainly helps.
Do Geico’s commercials work?
Selling car insurance is difficult. If you think about it, for most of us it is just an invisible cost, something that we are obliged to pay year on year without any payback. It could even be considered a tax on driving. Of course, that only applies until you must use it, but many people will go through life without ever having to make a claim. This makes selling the product difficult, people resent paying it.
Can you imagine having to advertise tax in a way that would make people queue up to pay it?
This is where Geico has been very clever. Well thought out campaigns that neglect to mention that the last thing any of us want to do is to shell out on a product that we will only use in a worse case scenario.
It’s a growing trend among advertisers who are realizing that commercials don’t need to sell a product anymore, it just needs to get people talking about it. It is a trick that Geico has taken to the extreme. People talk about their commercials, and of course when it comes to renewing your car insurance, what’s the first name that springs to mind. Why it’s Geico of course!
