Progressive drafts Baker Mayfield
Progressive is welcoming record-setting Cleveland Browns quarterback Baker Mayfield to its team.
With this marketing partnership, Mayfield and his new wife, Emily Wilkinson, will become the newest members of Progressive’s acclaimed “network” of marketing campaigns and characters.
“From our first meeting with Baker months ago, we saw something special with him and set out to showcase his story, and our brand, in a different light. To that end, we tossed out the typical ‘athlete-as-spokesperson’ model and took a more modern, content-rich and episodic approach that’s characteristic of today’s network shows. There’s no glorified pro-athlete persona or hard-sell messaging, just highly relatable, everyday (and quite funny) moments between Baker, Emily … and their rather unique 68,000-seat ‘stadium home.'” – Progressive’s Chief Marketing Officer, Jeff Charney.
Progressive’s season-long series doesn’t follow the traditional model of making a group of ads and then releasing them in any order. This “season within a season,” episodic content campaign will unfold gradually, as the Mayfields provide glimpses of funny and uniquely relatable “homeowners moments,” like mowing the grass or fixing plumbing and electrical problems, as they settle into their new and unusual “stadium home.”
“These interconnected, 30-second, bite-sized episodes will build throughout the football season. And while we’re not going to give away any spoilers, we can say that we doubled-down on the authenticity of Baker’s personality and the current life stage he and Emily are in,” Charney said. “Having been in the spotlight for most of his life, Baker is a natural in front of the camera, and our unscripted, improv-based approach captured a side of him and Emily that has yet to be seen.”
While each episode focuses on storytelling and character-building, the broader campaign highlights two key life moments that Baker and Emily have recently experienced: getting married and buying a home.
Bottom Line: the series officially kicked off on September 5, 2019, with the start of the NFL season.
