In an effort to demonstrate that Progressive understands the mundane aspects of homeownership, we created “At Home With Baker Mayfield,” a season-long episodic content campaign that unfolded over the course of the 2019 NFL season. Now in its third year, “At Home With Baker Mayfield, Season 3”, continues bringing viewers into the Mayfield home providing glimpses of the uniquely relatable, everyday moments of homeownership - from needing a house sitter to getting a neighbor’s mail. Even if, Baker and wife Emily live in a stadium.

Objectives:

- Increase consideration of Progressive homeowner insurance by creating relatable advertising targeted at the young homeowner NFL fan. Ultimately, drive them to quote with Progressive.

- Drive social chatter volume and positive sentiment for Progressive during the NFL season.

- Tie Baker Mayfield to Progressive ensuring our investment in Baker Mayfield is benefiting the brand specifically, not the category in general.

When it comes to the struggles of homeownership – big, small, or stadium-sized – first-time homeowners are all rookies.

We needed an insight that would make our NFL context and young superstar as relatable as possible to our target audience of young homeowners.

We leaned into the very specific human truth of Baker Mayfield – he was a first-time quarterback in a brand-new setting – and we positioned him as a newbie experiencing all the common struggles, responsibilities, and “oh, that’s what that switch does” moments of being a first-time owner in his brand-new home.

That home just happened to be Cleveland Browns Stadium.

Our strategy was to leverage QB Baker Mayfield to showcase relatable, mundane aspects of homeownership – at stadium scale.

The campaign featured our newbie QB dressed down as an ordinary young adult dealing with the annoyances and indignities familiar to all homeowners – needing a house sitter, getting a neighbor’s mail, etc. The only difference being that Baker’s “home” is the 70,000 seat Cleveland Browns’ stadium.

The campaign took an episodic approach more characteristic of network shows than insurance ads. We positioned it as a “season within a season” that unfolded ad by ad throughout the year, over the course of seven :30 TV spots.

We also amplified our television campaign with an ecosystem of digital storytelling. We ran our :30s on targeted digital video platforms like Hulu and since our target is more fluent in GIF and emojis than traditional English, we created shareable content on GIPHY. Additional campaign creative launched across Facebook, Twitter, and standard display right before kickoff.

Not only have we increased business consideration and positive social chatter, but we’ve also successfully established a positive, unbreakable link between Baker and Progressive with 80% of positive sentiment. Throughout Season 3, we saw YouTube views of our campaign videos increase YoY by 73%, meaning viewers are actively seeking out our content. Furthermore, we saw that Gen Z and Millennials who recall our campaign are 42% more likely to discuss Progressive compared to the general public.

Zooming out and looking at the insurance competitive landscape, Baker finished Season 3 with 80% positive sentiment, double the percentage compared to our competitor and their celebrity athletes.

The cultural relevance of At Home With Baker Mayfield has sustained from season to season, even mentioned by broadcasters like Stephen A Smith, Tim Tebow, Michael Wilbon… and pretty much in every press conference Baker Mayfield goes to.