In the first 24 hours after the open casting began March 24,
some 28,500 people had viewed the insurer's job description on
Monster and QuackAflac.com. About 1,500 had submitted an
application through both sites. The company hopes to make a
decision by the end of April.
"We wanted to open this up to well-known talent as well as
undiscovered talent to see what we might get," said Laura Kane,
VP-external communications for Aflac. "Agents tell us that when
they make a call to customers, people can't say Aflac without
quacking it."
Potential quackers can audition live April 4 and 5 in New York;
Los Angles; Chicago; Las Vegas; Austin, Texas; and Atlanta.
Participants can also apply online by including a video or audio
clip.
In the interim, the company is running a TV ad it dubs "Silent
Movie," featuring the duck without the signature voice. The ad is
retooled from a 2005 campaign Aflac ran, which included several ads
in homage to classic movie genres.
Aflac parted ways with Mr. Gottfried just days after the
disaster in Japan, following a series of insensitive tweets. Among
his Twitter comments: "I just split up with my girlfriend, but like
the Japanese say, 'They'll [sic] be another one floating by any
minute now.'" Mr. Gottfried has since removed the offending
comments and apologized on Twitter.
Those jabs hit too close to home for Aflac. Japan, the only
other country aside from the U.S. that the company operates in,
represents about 70% of the company's revenue. Aflac has between
4,500 and 5,000 employees and 115,000 agents in Japan alone.
"Overwhelmingly, people think we did the right thing. But we are
hearing from people who thought we needed to reconsider it. We're
not," said Ms. Kane. "We think Gilbert did a great job, we just
need to move on."
More than likely, consumers won't even notice the duck's new
voice. "To the degree people are even aware of the change, there
might be even a brief boost in awareness," said Steven Weisbart,
senior VP-chief economist at the Insurance Information Institute.
And with voice-overs, especially if it's for an animated character,
"a celebrity voice doesn't always give added value," said Robert
Passikoff, founder-president of consultancy Brand Keys.
Aflac puts big bucks behind the duck -- $81 million in measured
media last year, according to Kantar.
It's no surprise that Aflac has no plans to muck with the duck.
Prior to the 2000 campaign, Aflac had about 11% brand awareness. By
2006, the company had 95% brand awareness, meaning that 95% of
people surveyed recognized the Aflac brand.
The company declined to disclose the change in the number of
policies sold since the introduction of the duck. But according to
the Insurance Information Institute, Aflac in the accident and
health insurance category was No. 1 among U.S. companies in 2010,
with 9.04% of the market, ahead of Aetna, Cigna and MetLife. In
1999 -- the year before the duck became the mascot -- the company
had 7.88% of the market share in the category.
"The duck is here to stay," said Ms. Kane.