One look on the internet tells you that people are pretty fired up over Liberty Mututal’s “Wet Teddy Bears” commercial. More than 150 comments litter a recent reddit discussion, people fuming that the commercial spews stupidity.
And you know the one. A customer approaches a vendor thinking he’s buying a hot dog. Instead, he gets a wet teddy bear.
“Get yer wet teddy bears here,” screams the vendor, like a carnival huckster.
The spot does seem ridiculous because wet teddy bears is about as far from the expected as you can get. Who has ever heard of such a thing?
Wet Teddy Bears – Does it work?
So why are people so outraged? There’s plenty of commercials airing that are far stupider. In fact, I’d say most are.
The commercial comes from two schools of thought. One, the whole purpose of Liberty Mutual’s marketing over the last few years demonstrates that the insurance brand ensures you get what you pay for. “Only pay for what you need” is the theme. The most effective of all the spots was the woman who stood, asking, “What the point of insurance when you can’t use it when you need it?”
That hit home for many of us who believe insurance companies aren’t really on our side. It was exactly positioned against the competitors who deliver the trite messages of the category: “We take care of you.” “We care.” You know the cliches.
It’s not all the different from the theme “Treated Fairly” I developed for medical malpractice insurance giant ProAssurance. Just with a different tone.
And what about that tone?
It’s the tone, I think, that seemingly sets people off. The sheer ridiculousness of it. But that’s the point. The wide world of marketing delivers thousands of messages to us each day. We see them. And mostly ignore them.
So, to be heard, you have to truly stand out. Even if it’s an emu and Doug. Or wet teddy bears.
Think about this. If Liberty Mutual attacked the campaign with less silliness would you have even noticed? There are examples every day of brands that tone it down, afraid of actually being seen. That fear keeps many brands from truly winning.
However…
There remains a disconnect between the campaign and the Liberty Mutual brand. Liberty Mutual promotes “only pay for what you need” in ways for you to notice. But it doesn’t feel part of the brand. What does the brand itself mean? The logo of the Statue of Liberty can, in theory, stand for fairness. But Liberty Mutual never makes that connection for us.
The Wet Teddy Bears and the emu & Doug spots seem like throwaways. Distanced from creating preference for the brand. So Liberty Mutual falls into the flytrap of being ultimately about cost.
Campaigns unrelated to the brand require mass spending. That’s why insurance companies – from GEICO to Progressive – shell out mind-boggling dollars to capture your attention. With very little change in market share. They have to keep it going because there’s no emotional tie to the brand itself.
If there was, they wouldn’t need to spend so much. Being more effective in creating preference for the brand means you don’t need to outspend your competitors.
“Get yer wet teddy bears here!” Sure, it works. And it’s only annoying because you remember it. But save the outrage for the campaign failing to create preference for the brand itself.