Insurance rarely gives people a reason to care about the ad itself.
State Farm is changing the creative equation with a football campaign where personalization becomes the entertainment.
Developed with Highdive, the campaign pairs legacy and emerging football stars with stories tailored to specific people and fan behaviors.
Patrick Mahomes, Andy Reid, Cam Skattebo, Heisman winner Fernando Mendoza, and Indiana coach Curt Cignetti all form part of the lineup.
The work supports State Farm's reintroduction of its Personal Price Plan, which creates coverage based on a customer's life and budget.
"We want our creative to meet that same standard," Kristyn Cook, State Farm's chief agency, sales and marketing officer, said in a news release.
"We pair human connection with technology that makes things simpler, offering a personalized experience based on what matters to each customer."
The ads give State Farm a way to explain personalization in a visual and entertaining way.
State Farm Gives Each Football Fan Their Own Story
The campaign opens with four distinct executions, each showing personalization through a different creative device.
In "Getting to Know You," Jake from State Farm spends time with New York Giants running back Cam Skattebo.
The spot observes Skattebo's habits and personality before connecting this familiarity to his Personal Price Plan.
"For Ashley" takes a more direct approach. Mahomes and Reid appear in an ad created specifically for Ashley Thomas from Topeka, Kansas.
Her love of football and dogs informs the story, which also features a sentimental lost-dog narrative.
"For Mike" pushes the idea further, with Mahomes turning up at the favorite restaurant of a customer named Mike from Lubbock, Texas.
His grandmother is already at the table, and his ex-girlfriend arrives to admit she was wrong.
The references make the customer the central character, with insurance entering as the payoff.
"Happy Coach" puts Cignetti and his recognizable sideline stance beside Jake from State Farm, and it runs with a spot co-branded with CBS.
The spots went live on August 26, and the broadcast run starts in early September.
Streaming, digital, audio, social, and influencer channels round out the rollout.
Amazon Prime's Thursday Night Football carries additional co-branded creative.
The campaign gives State Farm a flexible creative structure where one product promise can produce very different brand stories.
Personalization Gives Insurance a Creative Job
Deloitte found in 2024 that 73% of shoppers want personalized rewards, while only 45% of brands offer them.
Satisfaction with the targeted experiences people do get sits at 60%.
Meanwhile, Forrester's October 2024 Consumer Pulse Survey found that 33% of U.S. consumers don't want personalized interactions at all.
Forrester's take is that people want relevance and value, and a segment-level message can deliver both.
State Farm's answer is to put the proof on screen, casting Ashley and Mike as the reason the coverage looks the way it does.
State Farm has more than 19,000 independent contractor agents across the U.S., pairing local relationships with digital tools.
The company says this model lets customers choose how they want to get help while receiving coverage options based on their needs.
Cook connects this human layer directly to the campaign's creative strategy.
"That personal approach has been part of State Farm for more than 100 years, through agents who know the people and communities they serve," she said.
The campaign gives this brand positioning a visible form.
Each commercial demonstrates what State Farm says personalization should look like before the product claim appears.
State Farm's campaign shows how personalization can influence the story, talent and media context.
- Give viewers a reason to watch. Brands should use specific customer details to make advertising feel useful to the audience.
- Anchor different stories to one product promise. Marketers should write each story to stand alone while the product promise stays constant.
- Match the distribution to the creative idea. Marketers should adapt storytelling across channels to keep the same product idea recognizable.
Personalization becomes more convincing when audiences can see its logic in the creative.
Our Take: Can Football Icons Expand State Farm's Reach?
State Farm's mix of established stars and rising football talent gives the campaign both recognition and discovery.
This mix also gives the personalization strategy more range, since different personalities can anchor different versions of the brand story.
State Farm has a personalization promise that applies to every customer and a campaign that delivers it entirely through football.
We think that this vehicle is the limiting factor, since the Mike and Ashley spots would work as well for a gardener or a wedding DJ.
State Farm could extend its reach if it continues featuring real customers, even with football out of the equation.
Personal Price Plan sign-ups are the number worth watching, since they show whether the personalization traveled past the football audience.
Insurance brands need creative that can make complex products relevant while maintaining credibility.
Explore these top insurance marketing agencies to find teams that can connect strategy, creative and audience insight.
