The State Farm Insurance company has made a marketing deal with Disney/Pixar. The deal involves characters from the “Cars 2” movie. The deal connects State Farm’s “Agents on a Mission” sweepstakes with costumed characters from the movie making appearances in 30 cites.
The movie called “Cars 2” is a sequel to the movie “Cars”, (which was released in 2006). Both movies were made by Disney/Pixar. Each of these animated movies was a big hit with children, families, and people who really enjoy watching Disney/Pixar movies. “Cars 2” was the top-grossing movie in theaters the weekend of Saturday, June 25, and Sunday, June 26, 2011.
State Farm is not actually represented in the “Cars 2” movie at all. It seems that State Farm chose to connect with Disney/Pixar in the hopes that the popular characters from “Cars 2” will be able to help attract customers to State Farm Insurance and “drive” its business. I believe that State Farm previously had a deal going with Disney/Pixar that connected to the original “Cars” movie.
In the past decade, State Farm has been putting a lot of effort into going after the younger market. It seems rather natural to use a movie that was designed to be watched by children as a way to reach that demographic. Obviously, the children themselves won’t be buying insurance, but their parent’s might.
Young adults who haven’t yet become parents might also be amused by the “Cars 2” movie. If State Farm can attract that group through its connections with the popular movie, it might gain some business from new, young, drivers who need auto insurance. So, even though it seems a little strange for an insurance company to want to make advertisements that use cartoon characters, there is some sound reasoning behind the decision.
The basic storyline of the “Cars 2” movie involves Lightning McQueen , who wants to win the World Grand Prix, and Mater, who gets involved in a super secret mission as a spy. State Farm has created a promotion called “Agents on a Mission”. This involves having life-sized costumed characters from the “Cars 2” movie showing up in 30 different cities around the country. This part of the “Mission” has already begun.
There is also an online “Agents on a Mission” sweepstakes that you can enter right now, until July 17, 2011. There will be a total of 18,000 prizes, one of which will be a brand new Cadillac SRX. That number was selected because State Farm has 18,000 agents.
Image by jeff_golden on Flickr