The idea began when we noticed people were already creating thousands of GEICO commercials and parodies on YouTube. We wanted to capitalize on this while remaining faithful to the YouTube community.
We reached out the creators of the most iconic videos on YouTube and partnered with them to create parodies staring the gecko.
We created a channel page on YouTube and deployed a multi-prong media strategy including paid search, seeding tactics and display to drive traffic. The campaign garnered over 450 million impressions with engagement levels far surpassing our expectations.
The videos received hundreds of thousands of views each. Our lead video, featuring the Numa Numa guy, has reached over 3 million views to date and was voted #4 on Adage’s viral video chart.
So instead of just posting the typical, large budget commercial on YouTube, we tapped a true insight relevant to the GEICO brand. Importantly, this campaign from 2009 was a first for GEICO. Prior to this they had stuck to traditional display, SEM and SEO. But with the success of this campaign we were able to slowly but surely shift our client’s thinking towards more digital and exploratory marketing efforts.
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