Would you like fries and a new insurance policy with that burger?

Summary

Commercial opens with a young man sitting in a kitchen with a fast food meal (fries, burger and soda) in front of him.

Young Man: My Mercury moment happened when I was in the drive through.

Screen changes the same young man in his vehicle at the drive through of a restaurant where an employee is handing him a bag of food.

Young Man: Hey, can I get some……

Young man’s car is hit from behind by a red car. Young man’s car is pushed forward and into a stand with a giant fake burger on it. The burger falls off the stand and lands on the young man’s car.

Young Man: Just got my double, bacon cheeseburger, when this guy plows into me.

Screen switches back to young man in kitchen.

Young Man: Turns out he was insured by Mercury.

Screen back to drive through and man from red car is giving young man a card.

Young Man: Also turns out Mercury took better care of me than my own insurance company. So I switched; saved a few hundred bucks.

Screen back to kitchen and then back to drive through.

Young Man: (talking to employee in drive through) Uh, I have a giant burger on my car.

Screen back to kitchen.

Young Man: Next time I’m ordering at the counter.

Screen changes to the Mercury Logo, contact information, average savings for California drivers and also legal information on the bottom.

Announcer: Call 888-4-Mercury or visit Mercuryinsurance.com to get a fast, free quote and start saving today.

Point of the Commercial

This is a good one because I read this same exact type story time after time in our insurance company reviews. Where one of you have an accident and the other person’s insurance company treats you better than your own, so you make the switch.

Your stories and the point that Mercury is making are powerful. We buy insurance so that it is there to take care of us when we have an accident. Mercury is advertising that they will be there to take care of you during an accident, even if you are not insured with them (and their client is at fault).

What They Want you to Do

They want you to make the switch from your own insurance company or at least get a quote. As far as contact methods they prefer the telephone and then for you to visit them online. Their order of importance for contact says something about them as well. They would rather you call and talk to them so they can help you instead of you getting an impersonal quote online.

Of course, it could also mean they want you to be subjected to the influence of a sales person as well.

My Opinion

I like this commercial. There is a little bit of humor to make you remember it and also drives home the point of Mercury being the better insurance company. Overall, it stays on task of the point it is getting across.

Giving this Mercury Insurance commercial a thumbs up.

Taking a trip back in time to 1973 with a commercial from The Hartford that was made before most of our readers (and this writer) were born.

Summary

Black and white commercial opens in a junkyard with music faded in.

Announcer: Accidents cost more today and that’s The Hartford’s business.

The Harford buck is seen walking around the junkyard.

Announcer: Compared with 1966, the average property damage, liability claim is up 56%. Is your insurance updated for that? That’s The Hartford’s business.

Cars are being towed around the junkyard and the buck is looking into the cars through broken windshields.

Announcer: The average bodily injury claim is up 48%. Is your coverage updated for that? That’s The Hartford’s business. Insurance by The Hartford; you are our business.

Commercial goes to the shadow of a buck (it may just be the quality of the video) and the slogan, “You are our business”, on the screen.

Screen switches to the company mascot and “The Hartford” to close the commercial. On the bottom of the screen is the words “The Hartford Insurance Group, Hanford, Connecticut”.

Point of the Commercial

The Hartford is getting across that they will be there for you when you have an accident. Also that they will look out for you to make sure that you have enough insurance coverage for the increasing costs of accidents.

The points that they make in this commercial from 1973 are not much different than some of the points made in insurance commercials today. One thing that they don’t mention, that is so very common today, is the cost. They don’t even talk about their insurance rates, let alone try to convince the viewer that their rates are lower.

What They Want you to Do

There is no request for action in this commercial, like there is in today’s advertising. They obviously want you to purchase an insurance policy with them, but they don’t tell you how.

There is a reason for this. Back then, there were no insurance websites or call centers to contact the insurance companies through. Your local insurance agent was the only way you were going to get an insurance policy. So, when this commercial was made, they didn’t have to list all the different ways to contact them; there was only one.

My Opinion

I am going to refrain from giving my opinion on this one. This commercial was from a very different era from what I grew up in and definitely from what I studied advertising in. Mostly, I chose this one because I wanted to share what a vintage insurance commercial looked like. Hopefully, I will be able to find more from each of the different decades.

Tom’s story may be true, but it’s not compelling enough to actually make the switch.

Summary

This AAA commercial is a monologue given by AAA customer Tom Schwallie and his personal experience with AAA.

Tom: My name is Tom Schwallie and I’m a AAA member. My wife and I switched our home and auto insurance to AAA a couple of years ago and we’re really glad we did. Our agent made sure we had the right coverage for us.

When we needed to make a claim, the first things she asked, “Is everybody safe and are you okay?”. That meant a great deal to us. We all buy insurance hoping we never need it, but when we did it was clear that AAA was the smart choice.

Screen changes to white with “I choose AAA” and that AAA logo on it. Screen changes again to “Get your quote today” and AAA.com/quote.

Point of the Commercial

Customer testimonials are a very powerful marketing tool for companies. AAA insurance is using these to try and gain your trust through the positive experiences of other clients. They want you to think that if these other people have had great experiences, you will also.

Unfortunately, you do have to be careful about staged customer testimonies. This is not to say that the ones that AAA insurance is currently using are staged, but there are desperate and unscrupulous companies out there that do. (Trust me, as a writer I have been offered and turned down jobs to write these fake customer testimonials.)

What They Want you to Do

We have already talked about AAA insurance wanting you to think that if you switch to them that you will have just as great of an experience as the person you are listening to. If you are going to make the switch or at least contact them about possibly doing so, they want you to contact them through the internet.

AAA insurance offers no other way of contacting them in this commercial other than to get a quote through their website.

My Opinion

While customer testimonials are good tool to use to advertise, they are best when used in cooperation with an additional method of advertising. I was slightly swayed into thinking that AAA might be a good switch, but only while I was watching the commercial.

Once it was over I forgot all about it. The commercial was so simple that it was boring, and there was nothing there to make it last in my memory for the next time I start looking for new insurance.

Giving this AAA insurance commercial a thumbs down.

PEMCO uses the local company angle to sell its insurance coverage.

Summary

Commercial opens with two vehicles approaching a four-way stop at the same time.

Announcer: Politeness is nice.

One driver signals to the other driver to go ahead through the intersection first. The other driver signals back for him to go first.

Announcer: It’s gracious,

Both vehicles start to go through the intersection at the same time and both come to a sudden stop.

Announcer: It’s well-mannered.

First driver once again signals to the other vehicle to go first, this time not looking as cheerful.

Announcer: But, no one ever said it was efficient.

Both vehicles once again try to go through the intersection at the same time and both come to a sudden stop again.

The words “Northwest Profile #4” come on the screen.

Announcer: 4-way stop you go, no you go, no you go guy (word appear on the screen as announcer says them), you’re one of us.

Jogger now approaches the intersection.

Announcer: And you deserve a local insurance company that doesn’t hesitate to put customers first.

Now the two cars and the pedestrian are doing the “you go first” dance and everyone is starting and then stopping again.

The screen goes to an olive green with the PEMCO INSURANCE logo and “We’re a lot like you.” on the screen. Under the sign are the 3 insurance products they write, their phone number and “call your local agent or visit PEMCO.com”.

Announcer: We’re a lot like you; a little different.

Point of the Commercial

PEMCO Insurance is making two points in this commercial. One, they are making the connection with drivers in the Pacific Northwest that they are from here and they know how life is in this part of the country. Because they are from this specific area, they can take care of you better than a company that is headquartered back east and probably thinks the capitol of Washington is Seattle.

Two, the politeness issue isn’t just funny, it’s making a point about the PEMCO Insurance company. In fact, they directly address it at the end of the commercial when the announcer makes the connection that PEMCO is just like the polite driver , but instead of letting the other car go first, they put you the customer first.

What They Want you to Do

They want the drivers in the Pacific Northwest to trust them because they are local. They want these drivers to switch to them from the large national companies for the same reason. PEMCO is actually playing a very strong card here. In the Pacific Northwest there is a large “Buy Local” movement to encourage people to keep their money local and help out the economy in the area that they live in.

My Opinion

I’m not sure if this is what happens in the other parts of the country, but PEMCO hit it right on the head for those of us that live in the Pacific Northwest. I have played the part of both drivers and the pedestrian, stuck in this overly, polite intersection stand-off.

Aside from that, PEMCO has a whole series of “Northwest Profile” commercials to make the point that they are a local company and that they understand what it is like to be a driver here. The commercials are simple, they are different (in other words it doesn’t mention being better than GEICO) and it makes a point.

Overall, even though it isn’t my favorite commercial; I would still give this PEMCO Insurance commercial a thumbs up.

GEICO’s little piggy is more annoying than convincing that you can save 15% or more with GEICO.

Summary

Commercial opens to the Geico dramatic Spokesperson.

Spokesperson: Could switching to GEICO really save you 15% or more on car insurance? Did the little piggy cry “wee! wee! wee!” all the way home?