The good people of Gotham City can finally rest easy—Bateman is ready to defend them.
No, that’s not a typo. It’s the premise of State Farm’s latest brand campaign, which is tipping off just in time for March Madness. Unlike many of the ads running during the college basketball tournament, State Farm’s won’t feature any athletes. Instead, it stars Jason Bateman and features cameos from other celebrities and creators, which Head of Marketing Alyson Griffin said she expects will help State Farm stand out to March Madness viewers.
“If we’re in football, there’s a football player; if you’re in basketball, a basketball player; when we’re in gaming, we use gamers,” she told Marketing Brew. “The reason is because it does break through when people are in that mindset, but this is, we believe, a pretty special campaign. It’s the bigness of it, the theatricalness of it, the storytelling with the different villains…that will break through.”
The heroes we deserve: The 60-second spot, called “Batman vs. Bateman,” depicts some of the usual suspects from the Batman franchise, except Bateman isn’t exactly effective as a crime-fighter. “Having insurance isn’t the same as having State Farm,” Jake From State Farm says in the spot. “It’s like getting Bateman when you need the protection of Batman.”
In addition to Bateman and Jake, the ad features SZA as Catwoman, YouTuber Jordan Howlett (aka Jordan Thee Stallion) as Commissioner Gordon, and YouTuber and Twitch streamer Kai Cenat as a civilian. The wide-ranging cast is meant to appeal to “a very broad audience,” Griffin said.
Risk it: Putting social media personalities on linear TV in a general-market campaign can be a risk, but with a relatively small media budget compared to their competitors in the insurance space, “we have to punch above our weight,” Griffin said. Brands in the insurance industry spent an estimated $2.55 billion on national linear TV ads last year, according to data from iSpot.
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Early reactions to the campaign, she said, have indicated the risk could pay off. Ahead of its official debut on Tuesday, Cenat teased a clip of the ad on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, and Griffin said in comments, some people immediately recognized Howlett as Gordon.
“He created this flurry of buzz, which helped us know…we got that right,” she said. “My dad watching March Madness, who’s 80 years old, would absolutely not know. He’d assume there was an actor standing there. But those who know, know.”
Prepare for departure: The ad, which is running through both the men’s and women’s NCAA tournaments, represents a departure from State Farm’s “Right Kind of Magic” brand platform. That campaign started running in 2023 and features celebrities and athletes like Caitlin Clark and JuJu Watkins mistakenly showing up in situations where people need State Farm instead.
State Farm’s February Severance crossover campaign also broke from that platform with a message targeted at young adults being “severed” from their parents’ insurance plans. “Bateman vs. Batman” is meant as a follow-up for a more general audience, Griffin said, but the brand is still running ads as part of “Right Kind of Magic.”
Courtside? As part of the new campaign, Cenat hosted a livestream on Tuesday featuring giveaways and an appearance from Jake, Griffin said, a move that’s “completely different for us and for our category,” she said. Cenat will debut the extended cut of the ad during the stream, and the 60-second cut will start running on linear Saturday. There will also be cuts running across digital video, streaming, CTV, audio, and social channels.
While Jake was on the stream, Griffin said she can’t confirm if he’ll be courtside at any of the March Madness games. Given his track record for showing up at major sporting events, though, never say never.