Some of advertising’s best ideas are solutions to practical problems. The GEICO Gecko exists because, in 1999, GEICO’s agency couldn’t film people.
The problem
The Martin Agency of Richmond, Virginia, had won GEICO’s advertising account in 1994. By 1999 it needed new commercials, but a Screen Actors Guild strike prevented the use of live actors in ads. Whatever GEICO said next would have to be said by something that wasn’t a union actor.
The idea
The agency’s answer came from GEICO’s own name. Said out loud, “GEICO” sounds a lot like “gecko.” So the first commercial starred an animated gecko with a complaint: people kept confusing him with the insurance company. As the Martin Agency team has described it, the original ad featured the gecko pleading with people to stop calling him in error, because he was a gecko, not to be confused with GEICO.
The joke did two jobs. It was funny, and it taught viewers how to pronounce and remember the company’s name.
Finding his voice
Viewers liked him, and The Martin Agency kept bringing him back. Over the years the character was refined into a polite, easygoing figure with an English accent. Several actors have voiced him, including Kelsey Grammer and Andrew Randall; today he is voiced by English actor Jake Wood with a Cockney accent. The species, for the record, is a gold dust day gecko.
Part of his appeal is the contrast: insurance is dull and slightly anxious; the gecko is relaxed, friendly and a bit unexpected.
Part of a bigger machine
The gecko is GEICO’s best-known character, but not its only one. The Martin Agency built GEICO into one of the most prolific advertisers in the U.S. by running many campaigns at once, including the “Hump Day” camel and ads in which celebrities such as Little Richard and Joan Rivers comically “translated” real customer testimonials.
What ties them together is one line, which the agency calls the “15/15 promise”: “15 minutes could save you 15% or more on car insurance.” The gecko delivers it more often than anyone.
Why it worked
- It came from the brand’s name. The mascot is a pun on “GEICO,” so every appearance reinforces the brand.
- It solved a real constraint. Unable to use actors, the agency created an asset it would own forever.
- It made insurance likable. A cheerful gecko takes the anxiety out of a category people usually avoid thinking about.
- Consistency built familiarity. The same character, the same promise, repeated for more than two decades.
Legacy
The gecko has become one of the most recognizable brand mascots in America, and a long-running example of the partnership between a brand and its agency. It is also a reminder that a constraint, in this case a strike, can force exactly the kind of simple idea that lasts.