3.HOW DID GEICO DIFFER FROM THE NORM OF TV ADVERTISING AND WAS EFECTIVE ?

Uses DRTV campaigns with humorous ad appeals and innovative media buys to sell a
commodity automobile insurance

- Geico’s success has been largely attributed to its widespread television and radio direct
response advertising campaigns.
- The objective of DRTV commercials is to break through the high degree of clutter associated
with television and evoke action from the audience.
- Rational appeals present facts or information to the consumer in a logical manner. These
appeals focus on the consumers practical need for the product or service.
- The initial Geico “15 minutes could save you 15 percent” campaign took the idea of buying
automobile insurance ( which doesn’t seem very exciting and the insurance product itself is
probably considered an unsought good by most consumers ) and turned it into a personalized
quick process with a worry free consequence.

- First, it allowed smaller, customized messages to be tailored to individual market needs,

creating a cafeteria menu of creative options
- Second, it provided two opportunities for the toll-free phone number and website to appear
in the 30 second media buy.
- Third, it enabled the message to break through. Different was good, especially when battling
against giants who had worked for years to build their brands.

- Campaign : Gecko.. GEICO’s Gecko trademark character that cute little green lizard with a
British accent-emerged to help people properly pronounce and remember the company’s name
GEIGO
- Campaign: Caveman .. To continue the humorous appeal and drive home the fact that not only
would Geico save consumers money on car insurance, but consumers will find it easy to work
with the company, GEICO introduced its Caveman campaign. The campaign objective was to
convince tech-savvy 25 to 49 years olds that shopping for car insurance was easy with the
company’s website
- Geico’s cavemen have quickly become a pop culture phenomenon
- Campaign “ Testimonials” Another mini-DRTV campaign created for Geico by the Martin
Agency was the Testimonials campaign. A series of TV ads featured real customers providing
testimonials to correct a misperception that lower price meant lower quality service.

- Each advertisement contained the tag line: “ Real Service, Real Savings” Also each
advertisement ended with the Geico website clearly displayed causing people to process what
they had just heard from a fellow consumer and encouraging them to visit the website to learn
more about how their needs might be better served. They were also quite effective.