State Farm’s CMO is stepping down after 12 years

State Farm’s top marketing executive Rand Harbert is retiring after 12 years in the role at the nation’s largest insurance company. His replacement is Kristyn Cook, State Farm’s senior VP for agency and marketing, who will start as chief agency, sales and marketing officer at the beginning of 2023, the company announced today. Harbert, who holds the title of executive VP and chief agency, sales and marketing officer, joined State Farm in 1992 as an agent. Cook also has a long history with the insurer. She is a former agent who opened her own State Farm agency 15 years ago. Her father was also a State Farm agent. In her recent role, the Bloomington, Illinois-based company credited Cook as being “instrumental in reshaping the State Farm marketing strategy, expanding beyond traditional media and historically targeted demographics,” citing her work on digital platforms such as the metaverse, gaming and TikTok “to better reach Gen Z and millennial markets.” State Farm ranks as the nation’s 52nd-largest ad spender at $1.07 billion, according to the latest figures from the Ad Age Datacenter. The company is the nation’s largest property and casualty insurer measured by direct premiums written with 8.82% market share, ahead of Berkshire Hathaway (Geico) at 6.47% share, according to rankings from the National Association of Insurance Commissioners. Sign up for Ad Age newsletters From influencer marketing to agencies, get the latest news and analysis delivered to your inbox Click here Harbert is credited with repositioning the State Farm brand with moves such as reinvigorating the iconic “Like a Good Neighbor” slogan and re-introducing the Jake from State Farm character in 2020. The new Jake, who debuted in a pregame Super Bowl ad, is played by actor Kevin Miles, who replaced the original Jake, a khakis-wearing agent played by a real employee who unexpectedly went viral when the ad from DDB debuted in 2011. In a 2020 interview with Ad Age, Harbert positioned the move to bring back the old slogan as a pragmatic one that allowed State Farm to seize on the awareness it still had while battling big-spending competitors including Geico and Progressive. Harbert was also at the marketing helm in 2019 when State Farm elevated Omnicom’s Marketing Arm as its lead brand creative agency, in what amounted to a demotion of its longtime partner DDB Chicago. More recently, Harbert has been thrust into difficult decisions such as the insurer’s move to stick by endorser Aaron Rodgers last year as the Green Bay Packers quarterback drew negative headlines when he tested positive for COVID-19 and admitted he was not vaccinated, despite ambiguous statements that seemed to indicate the contrary. The move seemingly paid off as Rodgers went on to win the NFL MVP award last season. Rodgers appears in new ads that pitch State Farm’s new "Personal Price Plan” messaging. Harbert’s 12-year CMO tenure amounts to a lifetime for a position known for high turnover and his retirement marks yet another change in insurance marketing leadership. In 2021, Progressive CMO Jeff Charney retired from the role he'd held since 2010. Unlike State Farm, Progressive sought an outsider to replace Charney, hiring Remi Kent, who had been CMO at 3M. “State Farm is represented by 19,500 agent offices across the country. It’s been my honor to lead this agency force and to move our brand forward,” Harbert said in a statement. “I’m pleased to pass the torch to Kristyn, who has been by my side playing a pivotal role in some of our biggest marketing and agency decisions. I have no doubt she will continue to exemplify what it means to be a good neighbor.”

State Farm’s CMO is stepping down after 12 years

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