Can the Geico spots really serve their purpose?

First of all, for all my friends who don't know what campaign I'm talking about - you can check out the links at the bottom and catch up.

During the past few months I (like many of you) have been exposed to the different Geico Commercials. I never paid much attention to them as I didn't find them to be extraordinary or worth talking about with my "Mad Men" buddies. This changed last Saturday, as I was enjoying a beautiful sunny morning walking around the upper west side with a good friend of mine. Both coming from Israel we were talking about the difficulties in getting into US advertising agencies and sharing our thoughts about different campaigns when she happened to blurt out the following: "Wow, have you seen the Geico commercials? I just found them hilarious!"
"How can you say you like those spots?" I replied? "Yes, they may be funny and entertaining but can you tell me what they are trying to say? what's their message"? "No, but I simply laugh every time I see them" she retorted with no shame....
This whole conversation happened a few days ago and yet I still have not been able to forget about it. Had I been quick to misjudge this campaign? Am I wrong about my perception as to what makes a good 30" spot?


In order to answer this I must first go back to basics and remind myself the prime objectives of the traditional TV commercial. From my experience I believe there are three main objectives that the 30 second spot must achieve:
A) It should make you feel something - Happiness, Sorrow, Anger, Remorse. The stronger the emotion - the better.
B) It should make you think about the brand, any thought is good but positive thoughts are better (naturally)
C) It should leave you with a clear message, a real understanding of what the advertiser was trying to tell you.

Now, the Gieco people decided on airing three different campaigns at the same time, each with a different message, a different creative idea and different cast members. I have to admit that I did find some of these spots pretty amusing- Check objective A. They indeed made me think of the brand (Hence me writing about it!) - Check objective B. However, it is objective C where I believe these spots fail and thus prevent the campaign from being a total success. I believe that most of the spots do not covey one single message in a clear manner. I think that the creative is overshadowing the targeted objective of each spot and furthermore, airing so many different versions each with a different message were the main reason why my friend wasn't able to answer the simple question of: what were they trying to say?

However, if I really want to finalize my opinion on this campaign I need to go back to basics and I must ask myself what is the first and foremost purpose of an ad? Is it not to get the consumer to contact the brand at the time of need? I believe so. And what better way of doing that than keeping the brand in constant consumer top of mind. By blasting the TV (and Internet TV as well) with these spots Geico is keeping their brand relevant and in the consumers top of mind. I have little doubt that when one will need new insurance Geico will be one of the first companies that he will think about and will most probably give them a call.  
So what do I think has to be done in order to perfect this campaign? In my opinion the Geico lizard is it's strongest creative asset and should be taken advantage of in such a manner that it is able to make a simple message be delivered easily. I think Geico has made it clear that "15 minutes can save you 15 percent" and that is a wonderful tag line. Their mission should now to make it clear that "15 minutes can save you on your house/boat/etc.", in other words I think they must focus on one strong, clear message. I believe that by doing so Geico can achieve two things: they can better convey their messages resulting in higher brand value and they can cut media expense as their spots will be more effective.
 




Links for the TV spots:

Campaign A (Agent)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JhlWddAXSRA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DjGwusHrOtk&feature=channell

Campaign B (Gieco lizzard)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y85JQEAFGMo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L_qZNkSrwCE&feature=channel

Campaign C (Superhero)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oQjPby366CA