Do you have a local State Farm Insurance agent advertising on your station?
I've been corresponding with a very successful agent who'd like to advertise on local radio, ideally with customized copy that we would write.
When he ran it up the flagpole at "corporate," this is the response he received:
Unfortunately, there isn’t an avenue to create your own radio advertisement and obtain approval. Marketing Leadership discontinued that process several years ago due to the amount of time and resources needed to remain compliant. Sorry.
We don’t have any print materials that show our pricing or servicing information. The reason being is the product line can change that at any time. Our agent advertising materials are more geared toward creating awareness that we are in the business. [In other words, "State Farm is Still Here." -RS]
Later in the conversation, I learned that State Farm evidently hasn't even any pre-approved radio scripts for its agents to use.
Is State Farm Insurance as unfriendly toward local radio as they appear?
If anyone here at RSC has a local State Farm agent advertising on your stations, I'd love to hear about it.
Are State Farm agents in fact employees receiving commissions from State Farm?
I'm of no help here, other than to think of parallels with my Dad who was a Standard Oil bulk sales agent years ago. When he wanted to get into the farm fertilizer business, the corporate folks put up all kinds of resistance. He left their employment and went into business for himself as a Mobil oil jobber as well as a fertilizer dealer.
One approach that may save you some time and heartache -- ask your contact directly:
Are State Farm agents ALLOWED to do radio advertising on their own?
It is entirely possible that your agent doesn't know, because he's not asking the right question, and his corporate contact is not smart enough to read between the lines. He may have asked if there's a mechanism for getting approval, and his contact answered that question (no, there isn't) without addressing the one that counts.
In seven years of working with television stations all over the country, in markets big, small, and in between, I've never been taken to meet a State Farm agent. The reason might be that corporate does the whole thing and forbids local agents to do their own major media advertising.
That may not be the answer you want, but it may be the answer, and the faster you find out the faster you can figure out if this is a prospect worth pursuing.
If the answer turns out to be "yes", then the next direct question is,,, "Great! What are the rules?"
Phil, I broached this early-on with the agent. He wasn't sure. What he wants to promote is a less well-known aspect of his business: home mortgage loans, which (as you probably know) fall under different rules and governance from insurance underwriters. In any case, he's trying to go through channels and so far without success. But you're absolutely right, if the answer to the question you asked is NO, there's no point in pursuing.
I have a State Farm Agent that advertises with me limitedly. State Farm Agents can pay for any advertising out of their own business pocket they do not have to use the corporate provided ideas. The problem comes with their co-op dollars. Corporate State Farm takes advertising contributions from each of their agents and decides how they are going to use it to advertise for their agents. The Advertising my SF uses is a sponsorship for the local sports team broadcast games. And is in addition to what he is contributing to corporate for his advertising.
I'm assuming you're speaking of State Farm reimbursement for local advertising; co-op.
We have several agents in our area that do some, not much, but some local advertising. Non-co-op, out of their own pockets. And we have a few that participate in "Everything Expo," similar to a local trade show, that we organize.
Non-traditional revenue for us, but the agents receive a lot of exposure at the Expo.
Rod,
I have a local State Farm agent that advertises on radio with me. He has given me print ads and radio scripts that he received from State Farm somewhere.... He went online and located advertising copy while I was sitting in his office, so State Farm must have a site your agent could access. I'm sorry I'm not more help on the "how" but I wanted you to know that at least here, it's possible.
Thanks, Sue. Main problem here seems to be that we want to promote their mortgage services. (Did you know that your State Farm agent can facilitate a mortgage loan? And it may be at the lowest origination cost in the market.) Separate rules apply and we're getting nowhere with corporate. I'll keep this group apprised of what I learn.
