Friday, March 18, 2016

If State Farm is part of a "black-ish" storyline will more people buy their insurance?



In the March 16th episode, timed to coincide with March Madness, State Farm Insurance was integrated into the plot of black-ish.

The show's resident ad exec, got his client, State Farm, to sponsor his son's basketball team, which was then named "State Farm Good Neighbors."  The episode also included multiple verbal mentions and visual ad exposure on team jerseys, fan apparel, gym signage, water bottles and cooler tables.  That's a lot of swag.

State Farm already has a significant presence when it comes to supporting basketball, so this approach seems like it might be a good fit.

What do you think?  Do you notice product integrations in your tv shows?  Have they motivated you to buy something?  Did this?


Friedman, W. (2016, March 16)  State Farm Creates Branded Integration For ABC's 'black-ish'  mediapost.com.  Retrieved March 17, 2016, from

5 comments:

R said...

State farm is an insurance company so I think the main selling point for the company should be the quality of their insurance services. I would buy a product based on the reviews. And I would look to see if the product provides me the value for the price. I think that a TV show should sell me the show to buy not a product. And advertisements should make me more aware of a product.

Unknown said...

In my opinion, it is good for State Farm to have this kind of extension in their advertising. Since you mentioned they already support basketball, it is kind of natural to see them being sponsors in TV shows.

When it comes to product integration, I certainly notice it because I work in marketing so it is natural for me to keep an eye on those things. Often, they are not that subtle, and you know when they are trying to sell you something. But in the end, I think it is good for your brand's awareness, especially when it comes to shows that millions of people watch.

For now, product integration did not motivate me to buy something, because most of the time it is beverage companies that do this sponsorship (Coca Cola), and I do not drink those drinks.

Stina said...

I think this is a distinct and fun way to do advertising. I believe it will work better than normal TV ad for creating awareness. Then again when doing your own commercial, you can probably bring out your key message better. So it’s hard to say how much these integrated ads actually sell products.
However I think this was a good move from State Farm and as they have already strong media presence in March due to March Madness. So in my opinion this was a nice addition to their media mix.

Unknown said...

I notice product integrations pretty often in TV shows. As someone mentioned above, I believe that being in the marketing fields makes me more aware of this type of advertising and I may notice it more than others. However, I am always very skeptical of this type of advertising - and when it is obvious I think that others would be skeptical too.

I haven't seen this particular episode, so I can't say for sure if it would motivate people to buy or not. I do think it would generate a lot of awareness though and would be interested to see if their web traffic increased following the episode.

Furthermore, if the episode including reasons to believe (showed benefits of State Farm service) I think this would motivate buyers more than simply the swag.

Reema said...

This was my comment :)