How State Farm leads with their brand values
February 21, 2022 | By Fiona Green, Sr. Content Marketing Manager
In the United States, one in eight people are facing hunger—and one in six of those suffering are children—according to hunger relief nonprofit Feeding America.1 Hunger impacts people from all walks of life, but some suffer more than others. Groups, like children, seniors, and communities of color, are impacted at much higher rates and most often affecting our neighbors who live in poverty.2
“At State Farm we are committed to caring for our neighbors, especially those in need,” says Sue Beigie, Marketing Director at State Farm. “Where I live in central Illinois food insecurity is higher than in most parts of the state, and, for some of our neighbors, they face the difficult choice between paying bills or skipping meals to feed their children. This isn’t a choice any person should have to face.”
Consumers expect brands to lead with their values
Consumers have high expectations for companies to help make the world a better place. A recent study by Amazon Ads with Environics Research found that 89% of consumers believe more brands should do their part in helping the world, especially during difficult times.3 This shows customers are looking for brands to demonstrate their commitment to the causes they care about. State Farm wanted to show its willingness to rise to this challenge by doing its part to fight food insecurity.
State Farm and Amazon Ads team up to fight hunger
Tackling a cause as big as food insecurity takes a village. “At State Farm we have a long history supporting Feeding America, but we wanted to do even more this year with so many struggling due to COVID-19”, said Beigie. State Farm had the idea to team up with Amazon to support this important cause, while connecting with consumers so they could take part too.
To make it easy for customers, State Farm worked with Amazons Ads to develop a custom landing page, and used AmazonSmile to offer customers a way to give back to food banks in Houston, Detroit, and Los Angeles. Throughout the holiday season in 2020, through January 2021, audiences who visited the State Farm landing page on Amazon could help make a difference by donating non-perishable food listed on one of the page’s food bank Charity Lists. Customers simply needed to add the item to their cart and select the Gift Registry option to send the items directly to the food bank of their choosing. This gave shoppers control of their donation and helped them make a difference with charitable causes they care about.
Reaching a wider audience
To reach a wider audience and drive awareness of this important initiative, State Farm took a multi-channel approach. It used a homepage takeover on the Amazon homepage, combined with Fire Tablet display media, and video ads—including online video and streaming video. The landing page reached hundreds of millions of shoppers on Amazon across desktop and mobile. With a 97.8% Streaming video completion rate, the brand was able to engage audiences and create more traffic to the custom landing page.4
Through this program, customers helped raise nearly $25,000 for participating city food banks by shopping the custom landing page with AmazonSmile. State Farm also donated $250,000 to Feeding America to help communities across the United States. “Now more than ever, being a good neighbor means everything,” says Beigie, “With this initiative we were able to have a bigger impact and gave customers an easy way to join us and give back to food banks in their own neighborhoods.”
1 Feeding America, Map the Meal Gap study
2 Feeding America, Facts about hunger in America
3 Higher Impact, Amazon Ads/Environics Research social values report, U.S., Canada, Europe, 2021
4 Amazon internal, 2021