Why State Farm Probably Sticks With Aaron Rodgers On TV
Following last week’s news that Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers was dishonest about his COVID-19 vaccination status, backlash was swift. And while Wisconsin-based Prevea Health dropped its sponsorship of the future Hall-of-Famer in the aftermath, insurance company State Farm has issued a statement standing by the pitchman’s right to have his own point of view.
Despite that, the brand did spend the weekend largely keeping its distance from TV ads featuring Rodgers. Data from iSpot shows that just 3.1% of State Farm’s national linear TV ad airings from Nov. 5-7 included Rodgers, and none of those appeared during NFL games. By comparison, here’s the share of Rodgers-related ad airings for State Farm over the last five full weeks:
Week of Oct. 4: 18.3%
Week of Oct. 11: 15.9%
Week of Oct. 18: 16.5%
Week of Oct. 25: 15.8%
Week of Nov. 1: 9.5%
That’s a steep drop-off, clearly. But there’s a chance it’s also short-lived. Rodgers was clearly a large part of State Farm’s TV ad strategy, and the spots have also performed well with audiences. Data from iSpot’s Ace Metrix Creative Assessment shows that “Aspiring Musician” was 13.7% more effective than the insurance ad norm over the last 30 days, while “Game Show” was 6.8% more effective than the norm for the industry. The characters in the ads -- Rodgers, primarily -- were the Single Best Thing about the ad in both cases.
Rodgers’s social media performance is also likely to play a factor. According to influencer marketing platform CreatorIQ, the QB has more than 7.8 million followers across Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, which are his predominant social platforms. On Instagram, Rodgers has roughly 1.9M followers and an engagement rate of 9.28%, which is considered "excellent." Rodgers also regularly uses those platforms to share messages around brand partnerships.
(via CreatorIQ)
Now, we could see a change in how Rodgers and ads he’s featured in are received in the coming weeks. But at the moment, State Farm’s ads featuring Rodgers are successful enough that they’ll hedge until they have to make a move away from the campaigns completely — if that moment ever comes.
