Look out, Flo. There's a new babe in town.
Actually, make that baby. Progressive Insurance is changing things up with a new campaign from Arnold featuring a wise-cracking man-child character and a new delivery platform—Facebook Premium Video Ads.
The "Baby Man" campaign features just that—a grown man who acts like a baby. He's carried around his office in a baby carrier, slugs juice from a sippy cup and cracks jokes at his colleagues' expense. All of the ads end with a punching sound as the screen slams to white and a gruff voice announces: "Act your age! Dump your parents' insurance company."
"Save @ Progressive.com" then appears on screen.
The humor isn't exactly subtle. One of the 15-second spots opens with the Baby Man farting, then blaming it on a co-worker. Another ends with him spitting up on his mom. It's all part of a strategy of broad, visually arresting comedy that Progressive hopes grabs millennials' attention when the spots autoplay (users must click for sound) on Facebook.
"This creative is different than anything people have seen from us before, and was designed for the [Facebook] placement," Jonathan Beamer, Progressive's marketing strategy and innovation business leader, tells Adweek.
"Our goal is to break through the clutter of the newsfeed and to inspire people to evaluate their own insurance choices. Nobody should blindly accept his or her parents' choice—if young adults haven't reevaluated their insurance choices, they are probably not getting the value they deserve."
Baby Man is a significant new initiative for Progressive, and he also has his own section on the Progressive website. But longtime spokeswoman character Flo isn't going anywhere, the company added.
Indeed, she might want to join this campaign and whip the Baby Man into shape.
CREDITS
Client: Progressive Insurance
Agency: Arnold Worldwide
Executive Creative Directors: Pete Johnson, Wade Devers
Group Creative Director: Sean McBride
Art Director: Alyssa Wilson Georg
Copywriter: Joshua Kahn
Producers: Jaime Guild, Kathy McMann
Assistant Producer: Lauren Landry
Business Affairs: Kim Stevens, Lisa Mercier
Planner: Milla Stolte
Marketing Producers: Elliott Seaborn, Val Bettini, Caitlin Moran, Kelley Stenberg, Dorothy Johnson
Social Media: Matt Karolian, Brandon Schug, Cristin Barth
Production Company: 3rd Street Mining Company
Production Company Executive Producer: John LaChapelle
Production Company Line Producer: Barry Heaps
Director: Ben Hurst, Dave Thomas
Cinematographer: Munn Powell
Editorial Company: Editbar
Editor: Reuter
Audio Mix: Brian Heidebrecht, Soundtrack Boston
Color, Conform, Clean Up, Rig Removal: Zero VFX