Allstate Insurance wanted to leverage the 2014 World Cup action and needed to find a way to credibly engage with Hispanic soccer fans.

Built around the insight that Hispanics tend to have a heightened sense of fatalism, Allstate created the Bad Luck character — the ultimate embodiment of misfortune — to remind consumers they need to be protected by Allstate.

Knowing that soccer fans believe success on the field is a unique combination of skill and luck, Allstate Insurance decided to do something different: empower the fans to send bad luck to their rivals.

OBJECTIVES -

Generate Awareness: exceed Allstate digital site traffic rate benchmark.

Drive Social Engagement: increase (+30-50%) in Social Media engagements during World Cup.

Deliver Business Results: increase auto insurance quotes by at least 10%.

RESULTS -

5 times Top Trending Topic in the US.

Twitter 75% growth and engagement increase by 1,256%.

Facebook engagement increased 373%.

+20MM Social Media Impressions.

Delivered site traffic rate 519X greater than the brand’s benchmark.

22% increase in auto quotes.

10% increase in new auto policies for Allstate.

We created #SendBadLuck (#EnviaMalaSuerte) – a fully bilingual, consumer-centric platform that used Allstate’s popular Bad Luck character to “send back luck” to their team’s rivals.

HOW IT WORKED:

1. A fan tweets his request using #SendBadLuck.

2. An unfortunate event happens during the game.

3. Bad Luck tweets back a video response of how he did it.

We created more than 300 real-time video responses covering all 64 World Cup games.

For the Final, Bad Luck asked fans to choose the loser using his black cat. Fans tweeted to drop cat food in the rival bowl. Just before the match, the black cat picked Argentina as the losing team.

Allstate wanted to connect with bilingual Hispanic adults—particularly soccer fans—that went beyond simply watching the games. Knowing these super fans would be tweeting and posting about every major incident on the field, Allstate needed their full support to help spread the word about the brand’s World Cup efforts and, in turn, generate more empathy and consideration for the brand.

In order to remain relevant and connected with a key audience, but working with a small budget Allstate directed their efforts towards social media and digital to reach their audience.