Mayhem vs. Matos for Publicity

356px-Allstate_storeInsurance companies are working hard to get and keep customers. In the insurance game, everyone is engaged in the battle for the customer. The two current commercials that PR professionals are talking about are the Allstate Mayhem and Matos from State farm. In the Internet Matos is not popular. One blogger noted that you can get auto-fill insults for Matos when you type in his name in Google. The commercial tries to come off like he is friendly however, most people note that they do not like him. They don’t like the fake smile, they don’t like how he interrupts a female State Farm Agent and they think is hair is creepy. Someone has even put up a Facebook page for people who do not like Matos. State farm gets brownie points for polarizing people. You have to have the customers who cannot stand you. So that you are only engaging the customers that really love your products. The publicity comes in when you have a commercial so bad, that people are talking about it. It keeps State Farm on the table as an item of discussion and perhaps they are waiting for that to turn into customers.

Mayhem on the other hand tells you what’s about to happen to you. He says the things we are thinking and Allstate kept Denise Haysbert in the commercial. Haysbert is a big favorite and everyone is always glad to see him. Dean Winters plays Mayhem and we really have not seen him in a prominent role since OZ. Because Mayhem is much less scary that his character from Oz and Allstate can save us from Mayhem, it’s a win-win situation. By showing all the situations you could have happen, it causes everyone to rethink their coverage. This would result in new people getting covered by Allstate as well as current customers getting more coverage. The commercials have everyone buzzing and hoping for a Celebrity Death Match between Mayhem and Matos.

The lesson is if your ads can also bring you publicity, like the Old Spice Guy, your business can make money like their business did. Look! Get a horse!