As we continue to understand the power of millennial audiences our brand recognized a need to increase the type of awareness & consideration that could produce measurable business outcomes in 2024, which made our objective quite clear: Drive reach & relevancy through earned media, social engagement, video views and brand linkage to connect with this audience in an authentic way.
The sails of this new mission caught wind on a realization - recognizing the fact that women’s sports had skyrocketed 300% over the past three years, it was apparent where we needed to look for an assist in building relevancy and emotional connections with this generation: An authentic athlete who was just about to take the professional basketball world by storm.
Poised to change the game of basketball and the women’s sports landscape, not only with her amazing talent, but also by embodying values of authenticity, reliability and good sportsmanship, State Farm recognized Caitlin Clark’s strong alignment with the brand’s values of strengthening communities and helping people realize their dreams, making her the ideal partner.
With a foreseeable future of several to-be-incredible moments, Caitlin’s greatness would lay the groundwork and pave the way for each of our executions. The following overview showcases how State Farm championed Caitlin along her journey from college superstar to No. 1 WNBA pick to league Rookie of the Year, and how the brand demonstrated its commitment to women’s sports to meet their objective of building a strong connection with millennials.
State Farm committed to #CoveringCaitlin through a robust multichannel effort to support her journey as an athlete, celebrity and person. Leveraging the “SHOOT” spot where Caitlin made her TV debut alongside Jake from State Farm, we used the flagship and Jake from State Farm social channels to amplify key moments along the way both on and off the court to welcome and engage new and existing fans.
Then, as Caitlin approached breaking the all-time NCAA scoring record, State Farm wanted to make her accomplishment even more memorable. We partnered with multiple broadcast networks to showcase support for Caitlin with a visible points tracker counting down until she broke the record, allowing fans to follow along to the record-breaking moment. As the world watched Caitlin’s historic college career come to an end on Senior Day, State Farm surprised her with a custom Kristin Juszczyk vest during the ESPN “College GameDay” broadcast.
As Caitlin and her team battled it out during March Madness, State Farm launched the “Covering Greatness” spot while viewership was at an all-time high-- celebrating Caitlin’s accomplishments while showing audiences how she is deeply connected to the brand’s good neighbor values.
Next, the 2024 WNBA Draft. With Caitlin the No. 1 pick favorite, we knew it would be a pivotal career moment for her and opportunity for State Farm to “cover” Caitlin. As the Draft’s presenting sponsor, State Farm tied together ownership of the Draft and partnership with Caitlin in a seamless broadcast and social integration. After being selected as the No. 1 overall pick, cameras panned to Caitlin being congratulated by none other than Jake, signifying the support from State Farm during the transition to her professional career—just as our congratulatory billboards lit up Times Square.
After the draft, State Farm partnered with ESPN to release Full Court Press — an original docuseries that chronicled the collegiate journey of Caitlin and other female NCAA stars. The series gave fans unparalleled access to these exceptional athletes’ lives as Caitlin set her eyes on her professional career.
As a standout player, Caitlin’s next big moment was at WNBA All-Star Weekend, where State Farm gave fans a surprise from Jake and Caitlin. Fans entered the brand’s activation for a meet and greet with Jake, when Caitlin Clark showed up behind them with a photobomb.
Every step of the way, each pulse was organically amplified on social as we created cultural moments people had to talk about... plus planned social first posts from Jake, State Farm flagship and partner social channels.
As the season progressed, so did Caitlin’s milestones, including breaking the WNBA single-season assist record. State Farm knows a thing or two about providing an assist and saw this as a crucial opportunity to capture eyeballs, so Jake was the first to share a congratulatory personal message on social media. Caitlin didn’t stop there. When she brought home the WNBA’s 2024 Rookie of the Year honor, State Farm teamed up with longtime brand partner, NBA superstar Chris Paul to congratulate her.
Championing Caitlin, coupled with her own meteoric rise, effectively caught lightning in a bottle and was highly successful in driving social engagement. The higher level of audience interactions with our social posts for this campaign can be attributed to our social-forward approach. Instead of just sharing the SHOOT spot on our flagship and Jake from State Farm pages, we captured and posted behind-the-scenes images and videos from the spot’s production that were more aesthetically appealing to social scrollers. Utilizing this method one of the videos we posted garnered more than 1.3M views within a relatively short time. As a result, State Farm saw increases in brand awareness and consideration to continue building the brand’s reach, relevancy and fame. The numbers below speaks to the success of this effort.
Social Engagement:
Video Views:
Earned Media:
Business Results
