State Farm to debut new NBA push on Christmas Day

State Farm is hoping to capture some holiday viewing traffic this Christmas with a new campaign debuting Dec. 25. The insurer will air “Challenge Your Assumptions,” which features new brand ambassadors Trae Young of the Atlanta Hawks and Boban Marjanović of the Dallas Mavericks, alongside long-time collaborators Chris Paul and Jake from State Farm. A spokeswoman said the new spots are designed to communicate the low rates of State Farm’s insurance offerings. In one 30-second spot with Young, Paul and Jake discuss how people assume photo shoots are easy, just like they “assume they can’t afford great insurance.” A spot with Marjanović has the Mavericks center cleaning up some ringed water spots as Jake alludes to other erroneous beliefs. Bloomington, Illinois-based State Farm worked with Translation on the new campaign; the agency has handled the brand’s NBA work in the past, including a sitcom-style comedic commercial series that ran in 2015. As in previous years, the campaign will run on broadcast TV, digital and social channels and on the NBA players’ own social channels. In the coming months, State Farm will also feature a WNBA player and an NBA2K gamer as part of the push. For the year ended Dec. 31, 2020, State Farm spent $1.2 billion on advertising in the U.S., a 3.5% drop over the year earlier, according to Ad Age’s Datacenter. In recent weeks, State Farm has been experimenting with the metaverse, the favorite marketing channel du jour of brands, and released its own series of NFTs as part of a virtual treasure hunt. Last month, the insurer, which has a deep bench of athletic brand ambassadors, was the subject of public complaints when it chose to stand behind Aaron Rodgers following the football player’s public admission that he is not vaccinated against COVID-19.

State Farm to debut new NBA push on Christmas Day

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