At the time of this work, Taylor Swift mania was eclipsing all other social and media convos. Swift was in the midst of the U.S. leg of her wildly successful Eras Tour and rumors about her dating NFL star Travis Kelce had been circulating for some weeks. Gen Z was hooked. Which is why a multitude of brands were scrambling to take advantage of the Swift Effect. State Farm knew if they could get to the epicenter of the moment, they’d win over coveted younger audiences.

The Swiftest Response — how State Farm grabbed the best seat in the world.

Days after Taylor Swift sat with Mama Kelce, Jake from State Farm scored the hottest ticket ever — sitting next to Mama Kelce (in Swift’s former seat), at the next NFL game.

Broadcast networks flocked to air the moment. And we strategically crafted Jake’s social to maximize relevancy and top trending lists for days. The internet did the rest.

By acting fast to stand out from the crowd, State Farm didn’t just capitalize on a massive cultural moment, they created one. All while proving their motto “Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there.”

A 102-year-old insurance brand built on and by neighborhoods needed to relocate to prime new real estate — the cultural communities where younger audiences live — to grow relevance.

In 2023, the epicenter of Gen Z culture was Taylor Swift. But for one week in September, it was in an NFL football stadium, where Taylor Swift sat next to Donna Kelce, mother to Swift’s then-rumored beau, NFL star Travis Kelce.

On 9/25, a pic of Taylor sitting with Mama Kelce became the shot seen ‘round the world, earning billions of impressions. And Mama Kelce became the person everyone, and every brand, wanted to sit with.

State Farm knew that if Jake from State Farm could take a seat next to Mama Kelce at the very next game, the world would do the rest. But to get there, they had to move faster than the speed of culture.

Hours after Swift sat with Mama Kelce, State Farm swooped in to pull off a miracle. By leveraging relationships with the Kelces and broadcast networks, and using good old-fashioned hustle, at the very next game, Jake was sitting with Mama Kelce. FOX clamored to air the moment live during the game broadcast. And NBC rebroadcasted it during the following Sunday Night Football game.

Jake used his social channel might to share a cleverly constructed selfie with Mama Kelce, filled with Swift references and cultural callbacks. And in a nod to the iconic Swift/Travis walkout the week before, Jake shared a video of himself walking with Mama Kelce’s other star-player son, Jason Kelce. Ryan Reynolds even joined the fun with his own repost. All of it purposefully designed to amp up relevance and hype.

The stunt generated:

- 2.6B impressions.

- 270K engagements across social, digital, broadcast and radio.

- A 15x lift in State Farm-related brand searches.

- 92% positive sentiment from all mentions.

- Earned media value equivalent to $22.9M across 415 earned articles in just 5 short days.

- According to data and analytics firm EDO, footage of Jake and Donna from the initial broadcast had the same impact as 30 standard primetime ads and 172 cable ads combined.

- The rebroadcast played during Sunday Night Football a few days later was also a major hit, equaling 300 standard primetime ads or 1,758 cable spots.