State Farm’s Alyson Griffin’s policy: Meet customers at every life stage

State Farm’s Head of Marketing, Alyson Griffin, jokes that people don’t think about insurance at all, ever. But while people may not talk about insurance, they likely need it. This has led State Farm to take a creative approach in reaching and connecting with potential consumers in unexpected ways.

Mixing in performance marketing with brand-building tactics as a non-endemic brand is an example of how State Farm is doing just that. On the data side, State Farm recently became Home Depot’s first non-endemic partner for retail data, allowing the insurance brand to leverage insights from Home Depot’s customers to shape its campaign development. This might mean identifying Home Depot customers who own small businesses or who are homeowners, for instance.

Griffin also shared on The Current Podcast that using the power of live sports to reach people with popular ads featuring Travis Kelce, Patrick Mahomes, Chris Paul, and more helps the brand stay relevant and attuned to cultural moments while catering to younger audiences.

“We realized [the advertising] performs better if you’re not an endemic brand to sports,” Griffin says. “Aligning our brand with brand ambassadors who match our values and are at the top of their game showed us that we could cut through.”

Elsewhere on the podcast, Griffin breaks down reaching people during important moments in their lives, making the company’s iconic jingle a bigger deal in 2024, and managing Jake from State Farm’s image.