State Farm
Delighting and Connecting with Asian Audiences in a Creative Manner
Advertisement, Art Direction
AWARD
Summit Creative Award - Integrated Campaign, Gold
Summit Creative Award - Print Advertising, Silver
OVERVIEW
Lunar New Year is the biggest celebration of the year among Asian communities, opening up many advertising opportunities and making it THE key event for brands to grab consumers' attention with unique messaging.
State Farm came to Admerasia to develop a 2020 Lunar New Year (Year of the Rat) creative campaign to increase brand perception and preference with the Asian target consumers and differentiate State Farm's positioning from competitors.
From State Farm’s consumer insight, we learned that more than 63% of Asian American consumer consider insurance companies cold and un-empathetic towards people's cultural behaviors. We need to prove that State Farm deeply understands Asian consumers' cultural needs, and convey the key message "State Farm wishes you a wonderful start of an exciting new chapter." in a culturally relevant yet un-cliche way.
GOAL
CHALLENGE
While brainstorming about the creative concept, there is one thing that we'd like to focus on and one thing that we'd like to avoid:
What to convey --- "Like a Good Neighbor, State Farm is Here."
By the time when this Lunar New Year campaign launches, State Farm is bringing back their legendary brand slogan, "Like a Good Neighbor, State Farm is Here." As a part of State Farm's branding communication, this Lunar New Year campaign also needs to bring out this friendly, neighborhood-y image of State Farm.
What to avoid --- Scene of a car accident
In State Farm's past car insurance advertisements, showing unexpected car accidents is a common method to convey the importance of having auto insurance. However, in Asian culture, it is almost taboo to show or even to mention any kind of accidents during the Lunar New Year because it is believed that what you do or speak about during Lunar Year will likely come true in this upcoming year. Therefore, we need to think of a way to mention the cars without being considered a car advertisement.
Inspired by Chinese couplets, for the key visual of the poster, we decided to create a bird's-eye view of a small neighborhood with its main highways forming into the Chinese character "福" (meaning "fortune" or "good luck"). By doing so, if people look at this poster from a distance, it'd just look like a heartwarming Chinese couplet with the Chinese New Year greeting "福." When the viewer comes closer and looks at the details, they would be able to see that it’s a small neighborhood full of new year festivity.
From a cultural standpoint, it is also considered an ad that will bring good luck and would be welcomed by Asian communities.
CREATIVE STRATEGY
Print Ad - Chinese
Social Media Posts - Vietnamese and Korean