• Ad Age , Monday, March 17, 2008 11 AM

The final campaign overseen by late DDB, Chicago creative chief Paul Tilley is for State Farm as the insurance giant tries to hold share in the face big-spending competitors by using some of their same arguments. The new effort, called "Intersections," uses the company's "Like a good neighbor" approach in new ways and from multiple perspectives.

One execution has a young consumer caught at the intersection of "an 8 percent mortgage and a 3 percent raise," but saving money on insurance -- a pricing message more common to Progressive or Nationwide. In every case, an agent says "I'm there" as the insured stands on a red dot like a "You are here" marker on a map.

State Farm hopes the symbol will become as well-known as geckos and cavemen in other campaigns. But says State Farm's vice president of advertising, Mark Gibson, "What our competitors do is not a concern. This is a big brand that can go very broad or very deep.... We're really putting a bow on it." State Farm spent $319 million on measured media last year according to TNS Media Intelligence, far less than Geico at $559 million and behind Allstate's $370 million and Progressive's $371 million.

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