For all you Pokemon Go players out there, there’s a bunch of new Pokemon wandering the busy streets. But they’re not ones you’ll want to catch.
Esurance and agency Leo Burnett imagined some new Pokemon characters for its “Don’t Catch and Drive” campaign, reminding motorists not to play the distracting smartphone game between the wheel.
Viewers were surprised (in a good way) to see Bryan Cranston reprise his iconic role as Breaking Bad‘s Walter White in the Leo Burnett-helmed Super Bowl XLIX ad for Esurance.
On the other hand, we found it somewhat sad to watch Lindsay Lohan take a more self-deprecating route for the brand’s other big game installment.
Esurance CMO Alan Gellman explained the genesis of his Allstate-owned company’s Super Bowl ad debut and its tagline “sorta like you,” saying:
“Esurance is very excited to be in-game for the first time this year and share our new ad campaign with the millions of viewers who tuned in. We want everyone to know that we’re here to help make sure you get insurance that’s right for you, not someone ‘sorta’ like you, with the help of our innovative technology and services, such as CoverageMyWay and friendly insurance experts over the phone.”
Makes sense, we guess. Leo Burnett and Esurance promise more celeb-driven ads to come, along with the usual support via digital and social media.
Leo CCO Susan Credle offers her own synopsis, adding:
“We took characters who sort of fit someone’s description, but more importantly, dramatically, sort of didn’t.”
Esurance teased its Super Bowl ad from Leo Burnett today, with “Behind the Scenes with Lindsay Lohan and Esurance.”
Lohan talks about return to Los Angeles for the gig, a lifetime of acting, her football fandom and why she’s happy to work with Esurance. There’s not much in the way of hints at what the final ad will hold, other than the fact that Lohan appears to be filming from the driver’s seat of a car (not exactly the safest place for a Lindsay Lohan). Watch for the ad’s premiere sometime during the big game Sunday.
Esurance learned an fun lesson this week: Always take a few hundred steps back and see how your billboard looks from a distance.
The Chicago board above, which carries the seemingly innocuous headline “Cover your home in a click,” apparently looked mildly obscene to anyone who spotted it from afar. The “c” and “l” in “click” began to blur, and the sentence looked more like “Cover your home in a dick.” (Which is clearly not sound advice from an insurance company.)
Things got worse when someone went and Photoshopped an image of the billboard to more clearly say “dick” and posted it on Twitter. And then, Esurance itself compounded the problem by replying to the tweet and saying the billboard had been taken down—but without clarifying that that particular image had been Photoshopped. (Deadspin, in fact, initially took Esurance’s tweet as proof that it hadn’t been.)
So, those are your lessons for the day. Look at your billboards from every vantage point. And don’t admit to obscenities you never actually uttered.
This article was brought to you by the letters d, c, and lololololol.
Despite not actually airing a commercial during the Super Bowl on Sunday, Esurance had an extraordinarily successful night, thanks to its #EsuranceSave30 sweepstakes on Twitter.
The company snagged the first ad slot after the game, and vowed to give away the difference in price—it went for $1.5 million less than an in-game slot—to one lucky viewer who tweeted the hashtag #EsuranceSave30 within 36 hours after the ad aired.
John Krasinski, the brand's spokesman, helped to announce the winner Wednesday night on Jimmy Kimmel Live. You can see that video below. But also check out the social stats from the campaign, provided by Esurance agency Leo Burnett:
• 5.4 million uses of the #EsuranceSave30 hashtag
• More than 200,000 entries within the first minute of the Esurance commercial airing
• 1.4 million hashtag uses in the first hour and 4.5 million in the first 24 hours
• 2.6 billion social impressions on Twitter
• 332,000 views of the Esurance commercial on YouTube
• 261,000 new followers on the official Esurance Twitter account—an increase of nearly 3,000 percent
• A 12x spike in visits to the Esurance website in the first hours of the sweepstakes
Safe to say it was a successful stunt. Cue the copycats.
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Esurance definitely pulled off a last-second marketing coup at the close of last night's Super Bowl, but now spammers are seizing the moment as well.
More than 100 fake Esurance accounts have been created on Twitter in the past 24 hours, and thousands of users are following and retweeting the accounts in hopes of winning $1.5 million.
That's the sum the insurer promised to one lucky Twitter user who shared the brand's hashtag, #EsuranceSave30. With such a large prize on the line, the hashtag has exploded across Twitter. According to search tool Topsy, the hashtag has been used more than 3 million times in less than 24 hours.
While it's a clear bonanza for Esurance, it's also posing a potential security risk for aspiring millionaires. Fake accounts using the brand's logo and hashtag have gained large followings and promised "extra entries" to those who connect to their accounts.
The promotion ends at 4 a.m. Eastern on Tuesday, Feb. 4., so if you see some friends retweeting bogus accounts between now and then, you might want to tell them to watch for that little blue "verified" check mark on @Esurance's official account before following or sharing.
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Esurance is doing a fun little stunt tonight that should get some attention.
The online insurance company has bought the first commercial slot after the the final whistle of the Super Bowl. The company says that cost $1.5 million less than running an in-game execution—and it's using the ad to announce a Twitter sweepstakes in which it will give that money away to a lucky viewer who tweets the hashtag #EsuranceSave30.
To keep as many viewers' attention from drifting as possible, Esurance has gotten The Office star John Krasinski, its voiceover talent since 2012, to appear on camera for the first time in this spot, created by Leo Burnett.
After the ad airs, you will have 36 hours to tweet #EsuranceSave30 for a chance to win. Krasinski will unveil the winner on Jimmy Kimmel Live! on Wednesday.
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