Isabelle Cookson Portfolio - GEICO 2023 Social

My role on GEICO is as a Senior Social Content Designer. I oversee projects, guide junior team members, run shoots (and shoot content!), concept and design organic and paid social content across 13 channels.

You know GEICO. When you think of GEICO, what do you think of? Iconic TV ads. From the Gecko, to the Camel, to the Caveman, GEICO has invested substantially in advertising— especially on TV. And while their TV, Radio and Digital creative all had a platform-perfect vision and voice... Their social media was far behind. What works on TV and social media are very different, and as consumers increasingly turn to social, GEICO’s TV success wasn’t translating. The social media simply didn’t reflect that of a best-in-class brand. Most importantly, the much beloved brand voice that they’ve invested so much in was nowhere to be found.

Enter MullenLowe CX. Taking a brand and mascot with so much existing equity in traditional media into the social sphere is no easy task. Done wrong, it can feel jarring, like running into your 3rd grade teacher at the supermarket. But done right, the personal nature of social media makes it an effective way to build stronger relationships with consumers than is possible on TV. This is exactly what we did. We knew that the only way to do GEICO and the GEICO Gecko justice on social media was through a high-volume, high-quality approach to organic and paid social, as well as reactive content and strong, purposeful partnerships. We also knew that strong creative had to be rooted in smart strategy and ultimately ladder up to GEICO's brand positioning on social.

Gecko's Social World

It’s not easy being green—unless you’re the GEICO Gecko. Then everything’s easy. Easy is kind of your thing.

In taking over the Gecko’s social presence, we made sure to keep him on top of all the social trends, finding unique and clever ways to insert him into pop culture to better flesh out his personality, tone of voice, and style—all while unifying his channels to make one cohesive brand.

Some highlights
The Gecko's first ever creator collab post (with @PixelAddy, 95.4K followers); launching the Gecko on TikTok (account spend: $254,475; number of impressions: 20,220,977; number of followers: 10.4K followers); and launching the Gecko on Threads (58,177th to join and within an hour of the platform's launch).

Summer of Soccer

We supported, in both paid and organic, three separate league partnerships: FIFA Women’s World Cup, Wrexham US Tour, and Leagues Cup. We centered the Gecko as the ultimate fan, traveling to Australia for the World Cup and keeping up with all the action.

What we did: Five weeks of support across paid and organic social; on-the-ground presence at Wrexham + FIFA WWC; 125 social posts across owned channels, close to 150 reactive community engagements
Media Spend: $1,411,010
Paid Impressions: 157,580,000
Organic impressions: 17,915,317

Some Highlights:
On-site content captured specifically for social; 29MM views on TikTok Top View (above benchmark performance); social-first trends brought to soccer through the Gecko's personality.

And to top it all off,
We drove the highest awareness lift of all insurance providers!

Football Fall

For Football, we were able to create more robust content and create a stronger narrative thanks to sending the Gecko on a nationwide roadtrip (that we hit the ground to capture part of), and by capturing specific, “behind the scenes” footage.

College GameDay
14 weeks of support across paid and organic social
2 Social Shoots (which I personally traveled for and shot)
ESPN College GameDay partnership with paid social spend of $400,000

Weeks 1-5
Paid impressions: 2,095,207
Organic impressions: 26,309