Branded Entertainment has thrived in the United States in recent years, with major corporations devoting significant resources to content creation enterprises. But where most branded entertainment remains limited to product placement and short form digital content, State Farm Neighborhood Sessions represents something unique—a quality television property conceived, executed, and captured entirely from the brand side.

From its inception, we intended to broadcast the SFNS event to the nation as an hour-long television special. However, the original live event was planned, executed, and filmed with no network involvement whatsoever. With the television industry facing sharp ratings declines, deteriorating advertising revenues, and rising programming costs, we were confident that a fully formed entertainment property like our SFNS special would be extremely appealing to networks.

This gamble paid off in the fall of 2014 when, after successfully shopping the SFNS television special to a number of potential partners, we were able to facilitate a deal between State Farm and Turner Network’s TNT. This deal afforded TNT rights to a fully formed entertainment property without incurring any production costs. Conversely, the national exposure and accompanying online engagement generated by the music special more than compensated for State Farm’s original investment.

A mix of public relations, social media, outdoor, and guerilla marketing helped to spread the word about the SFNS event. An official press release introduced the platform to the public, with media outreach driving attendance through a combination of national and regional coverage.

After wrapping the event and securing a deal with Turner networks, we helped drive TV special tune-in with PR, digital, and social support. We negotiated with TNT to schedule the special’s debut for State Farm Saturday Night during NBA All-Star Weekend 2015, creating an evening of State Farm brand content of unprecedented scale.

Our #AllStarAssist activation was a massive success, producing over 260,000 social engagements, and nearly 28 million impressions during the main Saturday and Sunday events. Our All-Star Assist Center was open for 144 continuous hours, and generated over 3,500 social mentions of #AllStarAssist.

Popular characters in the “Born to Assist” universe—including Cliff Paul and other members of the SFNBA—all trended on Twitter at various points throughout the weekend. Our total number of social engagements was nearly double that of the previous year while lowering our total spend by nearly 10% YoY.

The State Farm #AllStarAssist activation also generated impressive PR results, earning organic coverage from The New York Times, The Associated Press, ABC News, FOX Sports, Complex Magazine, and Adweek—to name just a few. Digital banners placed across key media platforms generated more than 99 million impressions, leading to 767 completed insurance quotes.