GEICO
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| Government Employees Insurance Company (doing business as GEICO) |
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| Type | Private |
| Founded | 1936, Fort Worth, TX |
| Headquarters | Chevy Chase, Maryland |
| Key people | Olza M. "Tony" Nicely, CEO & Chairman |
| Industry | Insurance |
| Products | Auto insurance |
| Revenue | $9.212 billion USD (2004)[1] |
| Owner | Berkshire Hathaway |
| Employees | 23,000 |
| Website | www.geico.com |
The Government Employees Insurance Company, usually known by the acronym GEICO, is an American auto insurance company. GEICO is a wholly owned subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway and, as of 2007, provided coverage for more than 10 million motor cars, trucks and other motor vehicles owned by more than 8 million policy holders. GEICO writes private passenger automobile insurance in the District of Columbia and in all U.S. states except Massachusetts. The company is notable for its television advertising, with several prominent campaigns running simultaneously in national markets.
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[edit] History
GEICO was founded by Leo Goodwin and his wife Lillian Goodwin in 1936 to market auto insurance directly to federal government employees and their families.[2] Goodwin was inducted into the Insurance Hall of Fame due to the success of the company. GEICO's business model was based on the assumption that such persons would constitute a more financially stable and less risky pool of potential insureds than the general public. After real-time access to computerized driving records became available in the 1970s throughout the United States, GEICO began to insure the general public in addition to its target demographics.
GEICO generally deals directly with consumers via the telephone and the Internet, freeing up capital that would otherwise be spent on employing insurance agents in the field and making the company the nation's largest direct writer of private auto insurance.[3] GEICO does market their products through a small number of field agents, most of whom are based near military bases[4]; more recently, GEICO has begun opening offices in locations other than near military bases. These agents are known as GFRs (GEICO Field Representatives).
[edit] Commercials
GEICO's advertising strategy incorporates a saturation-level amount of print (primarily mail circulars) and television parody advertisements, as well as radio advertisements. A common tagline used by GEICO is "fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more on car insurance."
[edit] "Stupid Things" Ad Campaign
Early GEICO ads were animated and showed a man doing something foolhardy, such as pressing a button and causing a cannon to fire at him. A voice over would then say, "We all do dumb things. Paying too much for car insurance doesn't have to be one of 'em." These were very short and were generally aired with two back-to-back.[citation needed]
[edit] The GEICO gecko
The company's ads sometimes focus on its reptilian mascot, the GEICO gecko, a talking Day Gecko created by The Martin Agency and most recently a CGI creature generated by Framestore CFC. The gecko first appeared in 1999 during the Screen Actors Guild strike that prevented the use of live actors.[5] In the original commercial, where the gecko pleads for people to stop calling him in error, mistaking gecko for geico, he was voiced by Kelsey Grammer. In the subsequent commercials, the gecko speaks with a Cockney accent, because it would be unexpected, according to Martin Agency's Steve Bassett. Jake Wood, a British actor and comedian, is the current voice of the GEICO gecko. In current commercials the gecko's accent is more working-class, perhaps in an effort to further "humanize" him.[6] "As computer animation got better and as we got to know the character better, we did a few things," says Steve Bassett, creative director at The Martin Agency. "We wanted to make him a little more guy-next-door. And he looks a lot more real than he's looked before."[5]
[edit] Parodies
Another common theme is misdirection, in which the commercial appears to be about an unrelated product (or, in fact, may not even be a commercial) and suddenly changes to become a plug for GEICO. The commercials use a variety of fictional characters such as Speed Racer and Bill Dutchess as well as real people such as Tony Little, Little Richard, Joan Rivers, Peter Frampton, Mrs. Butterworth and Don LaFontaine spoofing themselves. Other commercials relate to a hair loss doctor who has saved by switching to GEICO, a nature show about a fish, and a soap opera of a couple who are breaking up. Another set of GEICO ads involved a fictional reality show called "Tiny House" in which contestants were forced to live in a half-scale house.
An additional commercial theme is the promotion of fictional products. In 2006 parody ads featured such products as long distance phone service, tomato soda, fast-food, a reality TV show, dolls, and even poking fun at the Old Navy commercials - in all cases, the parody portion of the ad ends with "but it won't save you any money on car insurance." After the GEICO slogan is heard, the commercials end with "Why haven't you called GEICO?" This use of fictional products in commercials is reminiscent of the Energizer Bunny campaign for batteries from the late '80s.
The parody pitch crossed over to the Caveman campaign (see below) in a recent 10 second spot that appears to be a talking heads news interview, but features the popular caveman.
[edit] "I've got good news"
In another ad campaign, a character would be breaking bad news to another (such as a baseball manager lifting a struggling pitcher for a reliever), but then offer helpfully, "I've got good news," and explain, "I just saved a bunch of money on my car insurance by switching to GEICO!" That news, of course, is of no immediate use at all to the other character. Some of the ads were parodies and/or featured celebrities, including, for example, Esteban. The exchange became parodied for a time while the ads were popular. One of the most watched "I've got good news" spots was a soap opera parody featuring television actor Sebastian Siegel.
[edit] Bland salesman
In another series, a GEICO pitchman is played by actor Jerry Lambert in an extremely bland and understated way, parodying the stereotype of an insurance man, such as reading to some bored-looking kids, from a book of fairy tales about insurance. In one segment, he reads a supposed e-mail from a viewer saying it would be "the bomb", i.e. something good, if the Gecko would do a dance called "The Robot". Cut to the Gecko doing that dance smoothly and gracefully (to the tune of a not-for-public-sale melody called "Sweet World" by a group called "Comega Men"[7], which was used in the arcade video game In the Groove 2) and then back to the insurance salesman attempting to do the same dance, seemingly more stiffly than an actual robot would.
[edit] Celebrities
There are also GEICO ads that feature stories from GEICO customers about situations in which Geico assisted them, but narrated by celebrities such as Charo, Burt Bacharach, Little Richard, Don LaFontaine ("that announcer guy from the movies"), Peter Graves, and Verne Troyer. D.C. Douglas was also featured.[8]
Other recent ads have included James Lipton, Michael Winslow ("that guy from Police Academy who does the funny sound effects"), Peter Frampton, Joan Rivers, and The Pips just to name a few. Recently, GEICO used the Mrs. Butterworth's talking syrup bottle as the "celebrity".
[edit] Cavemen
A popular series of well-received advertisements uses cavemen as pitchmen. Also developed by the Martin Agency, the ads center on Neanderthal-like cavemen, no different from modern-day individuals (outside of the somewhat pre-historic facial features), encountering either an ad or commercial with the tagline "GEICO: so easy a caveman could do it," followed by their disgust with the supposed stereotype of caveman stupidity. The ads posit a world where cavemen are still alive and active members of society in the present day, behaving and living nothing at all like the stereotypical caveman. The main characters presented in the ads are affluent, educated, and cultured, eating at fancy restaurants, going to exclusive parties, and seeing their therapists (portrayed in the commercials by two-time Oscar-nominated actress Talia Shire). The humor revolves around the relative normality of the cavemen's presence and their reactions to the stereotype represented in the ads, and their attempts at defending themselves from the stereotype.
The ads were so successful that the commercial actors are appearing in a successful series of interactive websites written and produced by GEICO's in-house creative team at Caveman's Criband most recently, iHeartcavemen. A spin off TV series, titled Cavemen and starring new actors, debuted on ABC Television in October 2007[9] to generally negative critical reaction.
[edit] My Great Rides
In 2007, GEICO also launched a social networking site, My Great Rides, for motorcycle owners. My Great Rides is a place for cycle owners to share stories about trips they have taken on their bikes, as well as post pictures of their motorcycles, and comment on other members stories and pictures.
[edit] GEICO Racing
The number 7 car of the NASCAR Nationwide Series is driven by Mike Wallace and is sponsored by GEICO. Commercials involving the race team are of a young boy claiming to be a relative of Mike Wallace and being a better driver. The boy says, "When people see Mike Wallace and the Geico number 7 doing well, they'll think of saving a bunch of money on car insurance. But when they see me, they'll say, 'There goes Lauren Wallace;[10] the greatest thing to ever climb into a racecar.'"
The commercials are sometimes presented in an interview fashion, where an unseen narrator speaks to the ambitious go-kart driver. "What do you think of Mike Wallace?" the child is asked, to which he responds, "Whatever, he's out there selling car insurance, I'm out there to win." When questioned on his relation to the NASCAR driver, Lauren shakes his head and concludes, "I didn't say I wouldn't go fishing with the man, all I'm saying is if he comes near me, I'll put him in the wall." To which the narrator questions him, "You don't race in the Busch Series." Lauren replies "Listen, go-kart track, grocery store, those remote controlled boats; when it comes to Mike Wallace the story ends with me putting him in the wall."
New ads in this lineup include Lauren referring to himself as being, "100 miles away and ready to strike," and "lightning in a bottle."
The success of those ads resulted in the launch of an interactive website written and produced by GEICO's in-house creative team at GEICO Garage. The site includes cameo appearances by Lauren Wallace and drivers Mike Wallace, his daughter Chrissy Wallace, Speed TV's Tommy Kendall, Paul Tracy, Christian Fittipaldi and Max Papis.
[edit] 15 Minutes Online
Another series of advertisement features separate YouTube videos of seemingly nonsensical actions, such as a hallway mattress fight, or a highly unusual collection of expressions uttered by a webcam user (YouTube's Brandon Hardesty). As the videos continue, an announcer states, "There may be better ways to spend 15 minutes online." Similar to the 'Stupid Things' ads, these commercials are also often aired back-to-back.
[edit] TRS: The Real Scoop
Introduced in September, 2007, this series of ads features an E! True Hollywood Story-type show about famed fictional characters such as Fred Flintstone, Jed Clampett, and even a Cabbage Patch Kid named Ben Winkler claiming to have their cars (the Flintmobile, Jed's 1923 Oldsmobile truck, and a Plymouth Reliant, respectively) insured by GEICO, featuring interviews with made-up investigators (however, the Ben Winkler spot does not have an interview).
[edit] Competition
GEICO's major competitors include State Farm, Allstate, Progressive, Nationwide, and USAA. Progressive is particularly countered in their commercials, with many GEICO commercials countering Progressive's claims of being able to quote their rates and those of several of their competitors' rates by stating that GEICO quotes are only available at GEICO.com.
[edit] References
- ^ Revenue: premiums written (2004), from Berkshire Hathaway 10-K
- ^ History on company website
- ^ GEICO at a Glance on company website
- ^ Geico
- ^ a b Gecko wasn't first choice for Geico. USA Today, July 16, 2006. Retrieved Feb 16, 2007.
- ^ "Little Lizard Says 'Ello To A New Inflection", The Hartford Courant, 22 February 2006.
- ^ http://www.geico.com/fun/blog/blog19.htm
- ^ Commercial Spotlight: Geico Featuring Celebrities
- ^ ABC developing 'Cavemen' - Entertainment News, Pilot Watch, Media - Variety
- ^ http://www.geicoracing7.com/photos.html Geico Racing
[edit] External links
- GEICO official website
