Integrated Marketing Campaign Case Study: State Farm's "Born To "

06.17.2013

The PromaxBDA: The Conference session, "Integrated Marketing, Creative Solutions and What's Next," on Wednesday, June 19, at 4:45 p.m., explores the evolution of how marketers are balancing content, creative and strategy and seamlessly blurring the lines between marketing the channel or program brand, the consumer brand and content. Over the next three days, as we near the session, PromaxBDA presents a series of sports marketing case studies featuring memorable brand integrations from the past year. In our first study, State Farm reveals a secret about NBA all-star Chris Paul:

This past December, State Farm revealed a secret about NBA all-star Chris Paul: That on May 6, 1985, Chris and his "twin brother" Cliff were accidentally separated at birth. The campaign, "Born to Assist," from lead agency Translation, , has birthed several TV spots, including one where the twins finally meet over coffee, with Chris relating his NBA exploits and Cliff talking about his career as a State Farm agent.Â

State Farm's campaign has also included such elements as Chris "interviewing" Cliff prior to the NBA All-Star Game and a takeover of Staples Center in Los Angeles, home to Chris Paul's Clippers, where fans wore Cliff Paul's glasses and mustache. That activation carried over to post-game TV interviews, when Paul's teammate, Blake Griffin, and Clippers fan Billy Crystal wore the glasses and mustache on-air.Â

Perhaps the most memorable moment of the campaign was a commercial in which Cliff the State Farm agent came to the rescue of TNT's NBA broadcast crew: Kenny Smith, and .Â

"The numbers we have seen on the Chris-Cliff Paul campaign show that brand awareness is strong," said Tim Van Hoof, assistant VP of marketing communications for State Farm. "It is very important for us to work with athletes who we feel truly represent the brand."

Barry Janoff is director of sports media marketing initiatives for PromaxBDA. He also is the executive editor for  NYSportsJournalism.com which covers national sports marketing, business and media news; and a contributing writer for Yahoo! and MediaPost.