Making News
| Insurance Company Mascots Thriving on Facebook |
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| Written by Anneli Lefranc |
| Thursday, 19 April 2012 08:36 |
 While most Property & Casualty Insurance Monitor firms have embraced social media only three firms - Allstate, GEICO and Progressive - have developed effective corporate mascot profiles on Facebook. Progressive has been particularly successful on Facebook. Four years ago, the firm launched its first Facebook page dedicated to “Flo”, their bubbly cashier mascot. Progressive’s approach has enabled the profile to generate the greatest amount of Facebook fans among corporate mascots covered by P&C Insurance Monitor, with over three million “likes”.Progressive Progressive actually offers two mascot Facebook pages - Flo, the Progressive Girl and the rugged Progressive Messenger. The Flo profile is updated frequently with photos, videos and discussions and has a light-hearted theme featuring humorous posts and access to games and apps which are used to illicit likes. In addition, the new “timeline” format allowed Progressive to add key events such as “Flo’s first slam dunk” that help build the mascot’s character. Likewise, the Progressive Messenger profile offers posts that offer biographical information such as The Messenger’s birth and first mustache.
Allstate Allstate’s Facebook page for Mayhem is the second most popular mascot page with over one million fans. The Mayhem page has a high-level of engagement, featuring the greatest amount of user-generated Facebook posts. Allstate also offers a Soy la Mala Suerte page, directed to Hispanic audiences. Interestingly, the theme of the “Mala Suerte” character is unfortunate circumstances rather mayhem. According to Allstate’s customer research, this theme is a better fit for the Hispanic consumers as they tend to consider circumstances rather than individuals to be the cause of accidents.
GEICO GEICO offers profiles for the GEICO Gecko and GEICO Caveman. The Gecko profile has over ten times more “likes” than the Caveman, which is attributable to the greater amount of features on the Gecko profile. The Gecko profile not only offers standard mascot posts – such as videos and open questions – but also a Gecko Tracker app, which features photos and posts documenting the mascot’s travels.
Closing Thoughts Overall, mascot profiles have been extremely successful in engaging clients with discussions on topics in a way that isn't self-promotional or sales-oriented. These pages are intended to connect with consumers, with a focus on entertainment and a conversational tone. Given the social media success being enjoyed by the insurance industry, it will be interesting to see if more financial services firms will add corporate mascots as an extension of their brand. |
