Insurance marketing superheroes
Farmers Insurance has announced that it will be launching a new insurance marketing campaign in conjunction with Marvel’s The Avengers, in order to draw attention to its new partnership with the new superhero movie that is set to be this year’s summer blockbusters, and which will arrive in theaters on May 4, 2012.
This campaign also coincides with the release of the new, cutting edge “Avengers vs. X-men Infinite #1” comic book, which is among the first worldwide to feature augmented reality (AR) elements on its cover and within its pages. This new comic book works with mobile devices (such as smartphones and tablets) and the Marvel app, in order to provide its readers with an AR experience that seems to bring the comic to life.
The Farmers Insurance campaign was created by the RPA advertising agency, and features J.K. Simmons, who plays Professor Nathanial Burke. This illustrious character is joined by his typical six agent sidekicks who don homemade costumes of Marvel’s The Avengers (Captain American, The Hulk, Thor, Black Widow, Iron Man, Hawkeye, and Black Widow), proclaiming “We’re the superheroes of insurance!”
According to the Farmers Group, Inc. vice president of advertising, John Ingersoll, “Being associated with the much-anticipated Marvel’s The Avengers gives Farmers advertising super-powers,” he went on to explain that “This opportunity lets us have some Super Hero fun with our established University of Farmers characters and shine some Hollywood limelight on our brand.”
Within the thirty-second “Suit Up”, lighthearted television spot, which was created under Roman Coppola’s direction, Professor Burke and his sidekick agents compare the experiences of being a superhero and being a super agent.
The campaign will also include a print ad within Marvel comic books that will run from May to June, and which was created by Marvel Custom solutions. It is designed to recreate the television commercial in the form of a comic strip.
According to the RPA creative director, Tom Hamling, “Suit Up” will be the campaign’s twentieth spot. He stated that each agent that has been to the University of Farmers campus has left with a tremendous amount of knowledge regarding insurance, which has, in essence, turned them into super agents.
