Sequels 2.0
Case Study: GEICO Sequels
Reclaiming a Critical Growth Moment Through Integrated Brand Leadership
Overview
The first quarter represents the most important growth window for insurance brands. Following the holidays, consumers actively seek cost-saving options before tax refunds arrive, making early-year visibility and consideration critical.
GEICO’s objective was to reignite interest in its most recognizable brand characters—including Pinocchio, the raccoons, and the woodchuck—while driving engagement, inquiries, and new business during this high-intent period.
The Strategic Challenge
Historically, campaign extensions beyond television commercials were developed by external agencies. This limited internal ownership, speed, and the ability to evolve engagement models across channels.
For this initiative, I led a small internal team of designers and copywriters tasked with:
Influencing senior GEICO stakeholders to shift ownership internally
Extending legacy commercials into a fully integrated digital experience
Proving that the internal creative team could drive results at scale
This marked the first time the in-house team held full responsibility for campaign extensions outside of broadcast, creating both opportunity and organizational risk.
Insight & Research
Analysis of the original Best of GEICO campaign revealed strong initial engagement but a critical limitation:
Consumers voted once and did not return
Incentives rewarded a single daily winner, discouraging repeat behavior
The insight was clear:
Engagement existed, but the experience did not reward sustained participation or sharing.
To unlock greater value, the campaign needed to shift from one-time interaction to repeat engagement and word-of-mouth amplification.
Strategic Approach
The strategy focused on transforming passive voting into an ongoing, social-first experience.
Key principles:
Incentivize daily return visits
Introduce shareability as a core mechanic
Extend brand characters into participatory storytelling
Align creative engagement with measurable business outcomes
Rather than treating the campaign as a static extension of commercials, we positioned it as a living brand experience.
Execution
The team launched GEICO Sequels, a digitally driven engagement platform anchored by a dedicated landing page.
Visitors could:
View sequel content featuring iconic GEICO characters
Vote once per day for their favorite character
Share their vote via Facebook, Twitter, or direct link
Enter a daily sweepstakes to win GEICO swag and a $100 movie card
Social sharing was intentionally frictionless, designed to encourage organic reach and peer-to-peer advocacy.
The experience was supported by:
Paid social
Programmatic remarketing
Amazon placements
Internal employee engagement
Cross-channel brand alignment
Clear tracking definitions were established for votes, shares, and sweepstakes entries to ensure performance transparency.
Business Impact
The campaign delivered strong engagement, repeat visitation, and meaningful business results.
Engagement & Traffic
2.49 million page visits
Approximately one-third return visitors
404,200 total votes
188,400 social shares
Raccoons emerged as the most popular character (45%), followed by Woodchucks (32%) and Pinocchio (24%).
Business Performance
January became the highest inquiry month in GEICO history with over 1.2 million inquiries
Inquiries exceeded plan by 3.1%
New business finished 1.7% above plan
Year-to-date inquiries ran 3.7% above plan
Media Performance
Programmatic remarketing CTRs more than doubled standard benchmarks
Video completion rates were 10 points higher than average
Paid social generated 97,707 votes, with Instagram driving 88% of poll engagement
Amazon Fire Tablet takeover delivered 402K clicks to the landing page
Internal Engagement
Over 30,000 employees participated
7,000 GEICO store items sold, reinforcing internal brand pride and advocacy