These days it seems every grandma is on Facebook. Not Beatrice. No, the star of the new eSurance commercial posts her vacation photos to her wall – that is, to the wall in her house. As she shows them to her other senior citizen friends, extolling the speed with which she does things like post photos, Beatrice references the mere “15 minutes” of Geico fame in which she saved on her car insurance. One of her cronies pipes up, saying she saved more in half the time – to which Beatrice responds that she’s unfriending her. The clearly more savvy friend says in exasperation, “That’s now how it works. That’s not how any of this works.” The voice over swoops in, confirming for viewers that, indeed, 15 minutes is no longer the standard. Instead, they claim you’ll save more in 7-½ minutes or less. And in only 30 seconds, a new speed-demon has entered the auto insurance race.
This spot works so well because eSurance strikes the balance perfectly: new technology balances old, all delivered via a spot-on casting of Beatrice and friends. Seeing this on TV, it seems to leave one questioning if they actually saw what they just saw: someone posting photos on the wall of their home – and then telling someone they are unfriending them to their face? Old school rules the comedy of this spot, which is punctuated exclamation-point style by the claim that they’ll save you more in less time. After all, in this age of social media in which an unlimited supply of content is in constant battle to stand out, time is at an all-time premium. So saving 7-½ minutes…well, that’s actually a pretty powerful statement.
Even more: this is a spot that begs to be shared. To be shown to friends and family of all ages. With something for everyone to enjoy, eSurance is getting their message of time and money savings across. Will the brand promise live up to the expectations set by such a strong campaign? Only time (and money) will tell…
~ @AdvertGirl (aka Denise Blasevick, CEO, The S3 Agency)
Note: This post originally appeared in my Examiner column. Please follow me there too!
