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The Big Impression
State Farm’s Patty Morris on pulling off an NFL crossover in less than two days
00:24:25
Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce’s relationship was still only a fresh rumor in 2023, when State Farm brought together Travis’ mother, Donna Kelce, and Jake from State Farm at an NFL game. On a new episode of The Big Impression, State Farm’s Patty Morris dives into how the company quickly capitalized on the opportunity despite being risk-averse.
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- [00:00]
A
I'm Damian Fowler.
- [00:01]
B
And I'm Ilise la Friend.
- [00:02]
A
And welcome to this edition of the Big Impression.
- [00:09]
B
Today we're diving into one of the most buzzworthy brand moments in recent memory, when Jake from State Farm crashed the Taylor Swift NFL multiverse in a way only he could.
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A
Our guest is Patti Morris, head of brand at State Farm. Patty and her team turned a viral cultural moment into a strategic marketing win. From the sidelines of an NFL game to the front line of CTV social.
- [00:33]
B
And beyond, we're talking about that famous seat swap with Mama Kelsey and then digging into why Jake keeps showing up in all the right places and how State Farm is rewriting the playbook on building a culturally fluent brand.
- [00:47]
A
So let's get into it. We're going to go back to the fall of 2023, when Taylor Swift shows up at a Chiefs game and sits next to Mama Kelsey and days later, Jake from State Farms in that seat. Can you take us behind the scenes and how the idea came together so quickly?
- [01:07]
C
Okay, well, first, let me just back us up a little bit. Okay. State Farm is 103-year-old brand, 103. So we have certain ways of doing things.
- [01:19]
D
A lot of legacy there, right?
- [01:20]
C
Yes, a lot of legacy. We, I think, have been successful as marketers and done a lot of great things over the decades, but we have a way of doing things. And you can imagine we're insurance company, we're risk averse, all of those things. I would just say, knowing that context, how do you get from that to, you know, an agency calling you on a Friday night and saying, we have this big idea and we think you need to execute it. And it's in about 40 hours. Oh, and also it's on probably one of the biggest stages there is. And you say yes to that, of course. But how do you get from A to B, I think is your question, how did you make that happen? And I would just say a couple of things. One, you have to set the right conditions so that you are part of the cultural lexicon in a way that those opportunities come to you. And I think we had done that over time with Jake from State Farm being really methodical about that and getting him out there in a way that people want to see him, and in a way that is the best representation of our brand and allows us to be in cultural places that we otherwise couldn't without that physical brand asset.
- [02:30]
A
I mean, everyone obviously wanted to be part of that moment. And it's interesting that you bring up the fact that State Farm is risk Averse, but. And yet you made it in. You made it into that moment. Why was your connection to the Kelsey family and Jake's cultural capital so critical to making it land?
- [02:47]
C
Yeah, I mean, I think the other context in the background around a moment like that is we've spent a long time, over a decade really working to be endemic in the football landscape. Whether it was our longstanding campaign with Aaron Rodgers and now Patrick Mahomes, we had brought Travis Kelsey into our football creative for the season, and he was part of that work, if you remember them. Holmes in Mahato commercial. The best bundle in the league.
- [03:15]
A
Oh, yeah, yeah, I do remember.
- [03:17]
C
So we had all of those things working together, plus all the work we had done to make Jake from State Farm who he is. And you get this lightning moment where you have the right to be there because you have Jake and people love him and he's a physical manifestation of an intangible product that you can put in these environments. We've built a brand that's endemic in football and is recognized in that space. And just I think hats off to the creative minds at maximum effort for calling us and saying, we think this could be a really great, joyful cultural moment. And not many people could go sit in that seat next to Mama Kelsey the week after, but we think fans will love this. And risk averse or not, when you hear an idea like that and you are able to put your brand in a position like that, you say yes. And if there's anybody that understands maximizing a cultural moment and doing it in the right way, I think it's maximum effort. So you trust them in that moment to do that with you. And, man, we did it very quickly.
- [04:23]
D
Very cool. Yeah, no, I know. I was just going to say it was very fast. Like, the timing was impeccable.
- [04:30]
C
Yeah, I think a week later, it wouldn't have landed. Like, it had to be that. And just the next cultural beat right after that. I think it really surprised people and added value to what they were seeing during the game. And in just a really joyful way.
- [04:46]
D
How quickly did it come together? After the idea came into, they called.
- [04:52]
C
Us on a Friday night and after a long week, a busy week, said, hey, we have this idea, but we have to make it happen on Sunday or we don't think it'll work. And we said, we agree, but oh, my gosh, how are we gonna make this happen by Sunday? And so, of course, their next call is Jake from State Farm. Are you busy? Can you be there? Can you get to New York overnight, basically. And the actor that plays Jake, Kevin Miles, is such a great partner. He gets that call and says, what's the idea? And we tell him and he's like, well, we have to do it. Like we have to do that. We think so too. He's like, then yes, I'll get there, I'll be there. So Friday night to. I can't remember what time the game was on Sunday, but wow, it was very fast and we're not used to moving that fast. That was an effort for us, but a really important moment, I think, and tipping point where we started to build some muscle around being able to capitalize on those kind of moments.
- [05:51]
D
How long would you say campaigns usually take to come together?
- [05:54]
C
Oh my gosh. It depends, right? It depends. Sometimes you plan something out and you're building something big. You do that really methodically and strategically and that takes a while, right? Sometimes you're doing something that is a smaller scale and you can do that faster. But these types of things are really, we call them lightning in a bottle moments. Right? When it has to be the specific parameters have to be exactly right. The stars have to align and you have to be able to do that quickly. And so we try to work with our teams to be doing the long term things, but also have the capacity to be able to turn and burn on a great idea when we see it. And I that's why we've been able to pop into these cultural moments and punch above our weight as a brand. Because they're not paid moments. They're cultural moments that get a lot of earned attention and that can be really powerful.
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A
Beyond that moment, then you've got that, you captured that lightning moment. Then what do you do and how do you make it? How do you channel the cultural impact of that moment across the different channels going forward to maximize it?
- [07:00]
C
First thing you do is celebrate, right? You took a risk and it landed and it paid off. And it's important to celebrate that because it can be really scary, right? We've got this really precious iconic brand in our hands. We've got this really precious asset in Jake from State Farm that we've worked so hard to build. And you take a risk like that. I think it's just important to celebrate when you make the right decisions and you're able to do it quickly. But we talk a lot about an equation that we have at State Farm and it's a shift that we've made. We of course care about how many impressions we get. We of course care about our Cost per. All the things that we marketers have to care about and do care about. We try to focus on putting things through a lens, especially things like this, through the lens of reach times. Engagement equals attention. So when you get this sort of lightning moment, just a cultural moment that everybody's already paying attention to and you sort of are able to insert yourself into it, we have a lot of great partners that we work with, media partners, and we're endemic in that football space. We knew everybody was going to look at that moment. We didn't really have to do a lot. We just had to put Jake from State Farm in the seat and everybody's attention turned to it and it created its own 360 moment in its own way. And so the earned potential you get from that, the attention, that attention metric, syndicated headlines, engagement in social, everybody talking about it on replays and highlights, that's priceless. It's priceless. So I would say a lot of things. We have to work really hard to spread it across channels and make it 360. This was really just a matter of setting up the moment and then letting it do its thing.
- [08:46]
D
How do you think about where Jake will show up next?
- [08:50]
C
We actually try to be really disciplined about this. He is that physical manifestation of the promise that we sell in insurance and the relationship that we sell. And so I think the first criteria is, is it authentic to the brand and how we want him to show up, and is it demonstrating relationship and connection in the right way? Is. And is it true to our values? Wherever he's gonna show up, the reality also is he is one human being. Right. So we have to manage his calendar appropriately. And it's. Jake's a busy guy. Very busy guy. He is an influencer in his own right. He's got 1.4 million followers on TikTok. The TikTok job alone is a lot. So we're pretty choiceful about where and when he shows up. So it's gotta be the right fit. It's gotta be an opportunity for us to really demonstrate that physical connection. And we gotta work it into the calendar.
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D
Yeah, that's funny. So I would love to then now dig into some of your takeaways from that campaign. Were there any results, like reactions that you saw from the mom and Kelsey moment, maybe in terms of brand lift or broader cultural impact?
- [10:01]
C
Yeah, I mean, I think it part of what has catapulted this branded asset into the cultural space in a way that just, honestly, it's hard to measure. So, of course, we look at Individual campaign metrics do we see brand lift in the body of commercial work that we put out, but in a case like this, it's harder to measure. Right. So I think we mentioned the earned and the billions of impressions that created the engagement and the chatter online and all of that, but it's really all of those metrics combined with some of the intangibles. When it comes to Jake from State Farm or our brand, we're constantly testing those assets for familiarity, so recognition and relevance, and we do it two or three times a year, and so we can see where he plots on that. Compared to our competitors and compared to the rest of our assets, we've got six, seven really important assets that are really familiar and we've worked really hard to build. Most brands are happy and lucky to have one or two. We've got like seven of them. So that's a metric that we look at, too, to say is what we're doing collectively and in cases like the Mama Kelsey moment, pushing those assets into higher recognition and higher relevance and uniqueness for our brand. And those are the metrics that we're looking at.
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A
I also want to ask you, what did you learn about your audience after the appearance and the way they engaged with Jake in that moment?
- [11:31]
C
It's such a phenomenon to me that this character can be in a lot of different cultural places and be accepted. So we didn't know if you go sit him next to Mama Kelsey after a Taylor Swift moment, like, people are going to love it or they're going to hate it. It's not one of those things that maybe no one will notice and we'll just see, like, it's a big swing. So I think we learned from fans that he is welcome in those cultural moments. And so that got us to have a little more confidence around some of the decisions we've made since then. So when you see him at BravoCon, you see him at TwitchCon, you see him at Coachella, and we do an exclusive drop with Travis Scott. And the reaction to him in those places, whether it's online and in social and how people comment and engage about it or in real life, is actually overwhelming. So many people, you know, will come up to us or will approach Jake, who are my kids. Love you. My kids won't stop talking about you. And even young kids, Jake from State Farm, they want their picture with him. So I think we've learned over time that he does have this universal appeal and he's welcome. He's loved in these places. And so you're able to add value to people's experiences and into some of this context in a way that you just wouldn't expect from an insurance company.
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D
So Jake obviously has become much more than a spokesperson. He's a TV personality at this point. And like, he's a spokes influencer as well.
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C
Spokesfluencer spoken, sir.
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A
I like that.
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C
Okay, say that three times.
- [13:11]
A
No, no, he was good. I think it was good. The interaction. That was good.
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D
Okay, ok. If you will. I think you coined that. Perhaps.
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C
Maybe we did. Maybe we did. Maybe.
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D
But he has permission to show up anywhere, basically. How did you build that kind of brand equity?
- [13:30]
C
I think it's a thousand little things over a long period of time. Original Jake from State Farm. That commercial was in 2011. Right. So you've got a long history of equity. In 2019, we recast that role and we're very specific about how we wanted to bring that to life. So I think it's been many things over a long period of time. But also, I would say, especially in some of these more recent cultural things, we test in small places, right? We test smaller things. We build confidence, and then we try the next thing and you can see the reception to it. And I would say the other thing that stands out to people are his clothes. So red and khaki in his kind of quote unquote uniform that he wears has also become pretty recognizable. And people talk about that a lot. And we take a lot of care in how we. How he dresses and how he shows up. So naturally we talk a little bit about apparel and fashion places and could he be accepted in that area and we can connect with a totally different audience that otherwise, again, would not be connecting with insurance. Maybe. And so we test into small places. You wouldn't say, let's have Jake show up at the Met Gala right out of the gate. You would say, where can we try? A couple of places. So we work with gq, we send him to Vogue World and just see how does it go. He does a whole behind the scenes content series around it. He shows up there and fans loved it. They're so excited for him. Like, they. They feel like he's their friend and they're just excited to see how he's moving through the world. And everybody's cheering for him, rooting for him. I think you. You try in small places and you test in small places, you build confidence so that you can say yes to the big swings and you can just kind of know in your gut when that's right.
- [15:15]
A
Are you able to connect that recognition, that brand equity to business outcomes. You know, I know people say, oh, there's Jake. In terms of like actual business impact.
- [15:26]
C
Yeah, of course we're looking at brand awareness, especially with younger audiences. And like I said, Jake is universally loved. We're working hard to make sure we're relatable and relevant with younger audiences, especially in these big cultural moments. And we see our awareness scores being at the top of our category. We see our consideration scores and the trend of improvement over the last five, six years as we've really put Jake forward in this way and become really consistent about it. And there's also sort of the offline pieces of that. And you look at how people are talking about him online in the conversation and the performance, performance on his TikTok and the brand lift that comes from that. So absolutely, we wouldn't be doing this if we didn't think it had profound business value. And I think we cracked the code a little bit on how to do it in a way that isn't a caricature or a mascot. It's this in between version of that can really have a personal connection with consumers, either digitally or commercially or in real life. And I think that's what's special about it.
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A
We're talking about maximizing impact, especially around new channels. Are there any that you're looking at in particular, like ctv?
- [16:35]
C
Yeah. And CTV streaming. Just the collapsing of the funnel is how we talk about it. Where in a lot of these streaming environments, you're really able to pull people through an experience in a way that you couldn't before. So the connected piece of that, the data that surrounds that and how you actually make that work from a customer experience perspective in a way that can pull people through, not just from seeing your ad, but actually considering you and able to take an action in that moment is really exciting. So we are experimenting with a lot of different things and a lot of different partners. We did some really great work last year with Amazon and Thursday Night Football. So that to me is a super exciting area and one that I think marketers are going to be able to show results from in a way that we just haven't before, all across the funnel, which is super exciting.
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D
It's hard for a lot of brands, especially legacy brands, to be so nimble and quick with their brand spokesperson. What would you say to marketers who are hesitant to take those kind of risks?
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C
I would say know the places where you have to be vigilant about your brand and know the places where you can turn over your pen a little bit. And I think that's especially true just with the rise of creators and creators and influencers as a very important media channel. We've been talking about that a lot this week here in Cannes around how brands work with creators and the partnership that you have to have. Because it can feel really uncomfortable as a brand to turn over your very precious thing to creators. But they know their audiences best, right?
- [18:16]
D
Yeah.
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C
And they know what's gonna work. And so it can feel scary, but you kind of have to turn over the reins a little bit and let them work and create with your brand in a way that's going to be relevant to consumers and their audiences. And so I think that is true in this context as well.
- [18:32]
A
To pull off a move like this, a brand has to move fast. I'm curious to hear from inside, as it were, what structures or ways of working at State Farm made you capable first off of pulling something like this off, and then maybe what have you learned from it as a company?
- [18:48]
C
Yeah, again, being 103, it's hard. We've got set ways of working, and we have legal and compliance teams, and those are very real parameters that as a marketer, you have to pay attention to. But culture waits for no one. Culture just keeps on moving. And if you really are going to capitalize on these moments as they happen, you have to be nimble in new ways. And I think it's just have the discussions, get on the phone, talk through it. Is it the right thing at the right time? And is it worth taking some calculated risk? Because the benefit to the brand and the business is going to be strong enough to outweigh the risk. And there's no way you can do that or know that without just rolling up your sleeves and hashing through it with your team and making the best decisions you can for your brand. And if you get it. If you get it right, it can be a gold mine. If you get it wrong, it can really be hard. So I think that it is. It's difficult and it's stressful. But for us, Mama Kelsey moment was probably a tipping point where we said we have to recognize and be able to act quickly and nimbly when that makes sense. Not all the time, because that would be chaos, but when it makes sense and do it in a way that's gonna be acceptable to our organization and feel good about that, but also in a way that is gonna allow us not just to react to moments, but be moment makers. So I think we've moved on from that moment to do that in different spaces. And it's been great for the brand.
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A
That was great.
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D
Now we have some rapid fire questions for you.
- [20:15]
C
Okay. Okay. So.
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D
So first one is a question that is a popular one for this podcast. What are you obsessed with figuring out right now?
- [20:26]
C
Oh, so many obsessions. My biggest one right now is organic search and really just understanding how that's going to move and change with AI and generative AI and what that means for brands and how you need to show up. That landscape is changing and it's so critical to adapt to what really is consumer behavior. Adapting to the consumer behavior in a way that is going to make sure we're showing up in the right places in the right ways. And it's probably one of the biggest places that I can see right now that is changing rapidly and significantly. So we're just, we're really working hard to make sure we're on top of that.
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D
Yeah. On that note, are there other ways you are already using AI or experimenting with that?
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C
Yeah, I mean, it's such an exciting time to be a marketer and also a little bit unsettling. Right. And so I think like many others, we're experimenting in certain places. We've been using AI through certain things for a while, but there are other areas where we're really just experimenting. So probably the biggest is content scaling. How do you responsibly use AI to create content at scale and do that in the right way, in a compliant way? Because the unlock there is just exponential connection with consumers and personalized connection with consumers. And it has the potential to free up capacity of teams and agencies to do other things, more things, different things, which is really exciting. But we're also very focused on doing that responsibly.
- [21:59]
D
Would you use it with Jake since the schedule is so packed?
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C
That's a good question. No, not yet. Not yet. Jake. The beauty of Jake is he's a real person. That's one of the core tenets of what we all love about him. I think we'll keep it that way for now.
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D
That's a good answer.
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A
Okay, so next, what's missing from the market from your point of view?
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C
This week has been so interesting and inspirational for me personally, and this might be a little bit weird, but my biggest takeaway from this week is making sure we're asking ourselves, what are we trying to make people feel? I think as a marketer, you can just get really wrapped up in a lot of quantity over quality. And if there's anything you see Here in Cannes. It is definitely quality work from all over the world, and it's actually quite humbling and inspiring at the same time. My big takeaway and what I think might be missing is making sure we're trying to make people feel something about our brand. It's the most powerful thing you could do, I think, to move someone towards your products. And I think the balance of let's get everything done and let's get everything out there with are we making something of quality that's really gonna create a consumer emotion and connect is something I'll be taking back to my team and something that I think is missing from the market.
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D
Amazing. If Jake from state farm could pop up anywhere next with zero constraints, where would you send him?
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C
I would send him to my family reunion so they will stop asking to meet Jake from state farm. I get the question all the time. And, yeah, everybody wants to meet Jake, which I love. Or you know what? Maybe I would send him to the future so he could tell us how all this is gonna shake out. That'd be pretty cool.
- [23:57]
D
Very cool.
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A
That'd be awesome. And that's it for this edition of the big impression.
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B
This show is produced by molten heart. Our theme is by love and caliber, and our associate producer is Sydney Cairns.
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C
And remember, reach times, engagement equals attention. Culture waits for no one.
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A
I'm Damian.
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B
And I'm Aileece.
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A
And we'll see you next time.