• by David Goetzl  @dgoetzl, March 6, 2007

When Geico burst on the scene as a national advertiser about a decade ago, creativity in the auto-insurance category was as interesting as filing a claim. Now, the category is staking a claim to fame.

The most visible example came last week, with word that ABC is developing a pilot based on the cavemen in the Geico campaign. Talk about branded entertainment. It's a big "if," but if the show somehow becomes a hit and Geico keeps the campaign going, the comedy becomes sort of a 30-minute weekly infomercial, presumably with no media dollars needed.

But beyond the cave dwellers, suddenly the would-be drab auto-insurance category is a hub of both creative and media planning innovation. Progressive Direct has droll ESPN sportscaster Kenny Mayne and high-quality animation in spots. And both Allstate and State Farm have devised novel ways of injecting their brands into the action in sports events.

In certain college-football broadcasts, the Allstate moniker is superimposed between the goalposts (as if it were on the net to catch the ball), dominating the wide shot from behind the kicker as he attempts a field goal or extra point.

Then this winter, State Farm reached a deal to place its brand on the supports that hold up the backboards in college-basketball games.

With just about every American paying an ever-higher premium, the four insurance giants are each slugging it out for a larger piece of the pie--and they're using TV advertising as a principal weapon. If the auto category goes into a prolonged tailspin, maybe networks will have some insurance against a major revenue dropoff. (The telecommunications category is an equally welcome buffer.)

But can fierce competition usher in a period where necessity becomes the mother of poorly conceived inventions? Credit Allstate and State Farm for their brand insertions in sportscasts rampant with the proverbial clutter.

Other initiatives are a mixed bag.

Take State Farm's involvement with the USA "American Idol"-knockoff series "Nashville Star," the search for the next Toby Keith or Martina McBride. In the Feb. 22 episode, the show embarked on "State Farm Hometown" visits, where cameras followed the contestants back to their roots. (One of the top product placements of the week, according to measurement firm iTVX.) The vignettes included touching testimonies from parents. Like a good neighbor, State Farm was there.

And the contestants came off as more than good neighbors, but local heroes. Their parents spoke about them in glowing terms, but passionately and ingenuously without hyperbole. Contestant "Angela's" mother, who appeared to be perhaps the most honest woman in America, spoke about her special daughter's empathy. "She's got such great heart," she said.

All the while, the State Farm logo appeared on the bottom of the screen, as if it were the NBC News logo during a legitimate documentary, not part of a brand integration. Still, it's hard not to be moved by forthright interviews with unpolished but straightforward parents and footage of communities proud of their progeny. The presence of the State Farm logo may even have garnered some goodwill for the brand.

But if that aspect of the brand integration was beneficial, another seems dubious: A billboard with a voiceover asserting State Farm's sponsorship of the episode. The TV staple may have outlived its usefulness. If a marketer wants to avert ad creep, why not just drop the billboard? Essentially, it just screams: Beware--advertising approaching.

State Farm did a creditable job of devising the "Hometown" vignettes with a genuine feel. Why not let them stand on their own as a marketing maneuver? Why toss them into a mixer with traditional promotional tactics?

Even worse was how the billboard was executed. It was clutter on top of clutter. The "Nashville Star" lead sponsor is fast-food chain Sonic, whose deal with the show is apparently so ironclad that it gets a mention in a billboard touting other sponsors--in this case, more than one.

So, the voiceover was: "Nashville Star" presented by Sonic is brought to you in part by State Farm" ... and more. "Presented by" and "brought to you by" in the same phrasing is the apogee of over-commercialization. A viewer could yearn for the days of the cavemen.