Who knew cavemen could be so hip and, well... evolved?
The 10 moronic GEICO television ads with the tagline, "So easy, a caveman can do it," have spawned an interactive Web site and a TV show on ABC, "Cavemen," to air with Angie Harmon this fall. Sure, the evolution of the caveman icon is indicative of the blurring of advertising and entertainment-certain to be a boon to GEICO's brand-but does it really sell more car insurance?
Created by Joe Lawson of the Richmond, VA-based The Martin Agency, the cavemen characters were launched in 2004 and underwent several incarnations before taking off as a cultural phenomenon. Ted Ward, vp of marketing for GEICO, admits to being "a little surprised" at the cavemen's new popularity. "The caveman doesn't operate in a vacuum," he says, noting that he has always seen the gecko as a more significant icon. But unlike the Cockney-accented lizard, the angst of the misunderstood minority has captured the public's imagination.
The premise of the pilot sitcom, set to air at 8 p.m. Tuesdays beginning October 2, is summed up in an ABC press release: "[Cavemen] have been around since the dawn of time, survived the Ice Age and witnessed the evolution of the Homo Sapiens, making them one of the world's oldest minorities. A small number of cavemen have been slowly migrating from these sub-societies. ... Needless to say, this has proven difficult." As a metaphor for racial minorities struggling for acceptance in the U.S., the sitcom has a lot to prove. Although the insurer will have nothing to do with the show's content, the GEICO name will appear in the credits and GEICO/Berkshire will collect an unspecified royalty payment.
Perhaps the more interesting add-on, however, is the award-winning interactive Web site devoted to the cavemen's swanky, high-rise apartment, first featured in a 15-second TV ad. At www.cavemanscrib.com, which has earned more than 50 million hits, viewers can watch the two roommates prepare for a party-and witness its aftermath- through photo and video clips, voice mails from scattered laptops and phones. The sarcastic, cranky metrosexuals live in an unidentified city, and viewers can wander their place, poking through the pair's books, magazines, PDAs and recipe book. They can even play the music on their iPods (dominated by the commercial's theme song, "Remind Me," by Röyksopp), dress up one roommate in various outfits and rearrange their fridge magnets.
There are few direct GEICO connections, although its commercials play on the flat-panel-screened TV and a couple of references pop up on one roommate's blog. And in a photo album, one caveman is pictured with Warren Buffett (Berkshire Hathaway bought the company in 1996.) The ideas behind cavemanscrib.com, launched in January, are all the in-house fodder of GEICO, says Ward, who notes that the site is aimed at people in their 20s and 30s. "It's really our version of the TV show," says Ward. "And the demographic doesn't really matter. ... But the Caveman's Crib is a new attendant to the viral marketplace." Ward declined to disclose the cost of the commercials, but Nielsen Monitor-Plus data show GEICO spent $265 million on advertising from January to June and $560 million in 2006.
Steve Bassett, svp and creative director at The Martin Agency, sees the TV pilot as "a win-win. I'm glad it was such an original idea that it was sitcom-worthy. Whether the show is a success or not, it helps GEICO's awareness." Ward credits the cavemen for boosting premiums to $11 billion in 2006 from less than $3 billion in 1996, making GEICO the No. 4 auto insurer in the nation.
"The trick is: Are you moving sales?" asks Warren Church, vp of brand strategy at Deskey, a brand firm in Cincinnati. "The cavemen have become phenomenally hip. But will it sell insurance? It's all in the activation."
Robert K. Passikoff, president of the New York branding firm Brand Keys, says the more "touch points" a firm creates, the better. "In a complex media environment, you want to optimize as many touch points as are possible and practical," he says. "Both the Web site and the show are viable touch points, which reinforce brand value."
It's unclear if the cavemen will have more than 15 minutes of fame, although initial reviews of the sitcom aren't promising (and ABC declined to provide a review copy). Perhaps Web surfers soon will be forced to find, as the GEICO ad says, " better things to do with 15 minutes online." (c) 2007 U.S. Banker and SourceMedia, Inc. All Rights Reserved. http://www.us-banker.com http://www.sourcemedia.com
