After thumbing its nose at the in-game advertisers on last year's Super Bowl, Esurance is set to become one of them.
The online insurance company confirmed Monday that it is suiting up and ready to air an in-game spot on Sunday's telecast. No details about the length of the ad or the creative approach were available. But a rep for Leo Burnett in Chicago, which is creating the spot, said it will "demonstrate how Esurance is the faster, smarter and more modern direct insurance provider."
Esurance orchestrated a remarkable stunt around last year's Super Bowl, using the first commercial slot after the final whistle—which cost $1.5 million less than an in-game spot—to announce the #esurancesave30 sweepstakes, which gave away that $1.5 million in savings to a consumer. That effort garnered more than 3 million entries (including 200,000 in the first minute) and 5 billion social media impressions.
The company will not give away $1.5 million this year. Instead, Esurance chief marketing officer Alan Gellman said the time was right to spend the money in the game itself.
"Esurance is a major brand in the insurance category, but we're not as well known as our major competitors who spend far more than we do," he said in a statement. "So, maximizing awareness of our innovative offering for customers is important. The Super Bowl is the biggest media event of the year and it offers us the opportunity to efficiently reach a very large audience while making them aware that, because of our innovative options, Esurance is the smarter choice for insurance in today's modern world."