State Farm has the largest network of agents among all auto insurers, but they have lost their cachet amidst a highly commoditized market. To help regain relevancy, we needed to change the conversation around insurance from price to customer service. To break through the conventions of the category, we reframed the State Farm agent’s assist advantage through a context that was meaningful and culturally relevant to our audience: professional basketball.

We introduced Cliff Paul, the fictional identical twin brother of two-time NBA assist leader Chris Paul, as a State Farm agent that was born to assist. The “Born to Assist” campaign leveraged a playful, yet powerful, analogy between Cliff and Chris that demonstrated the value of having State Farm through a celebrated playmaker.

The character of Cliff Paul took the nation by storm. The “Born to Assist” campaign helped drive 15% growth in auto policies to date. It has ignited tremendous intrigue across culture, and helped the brand break through the otherwise cluttered and everyday world of sports sponsorships. Nike is even producing a limited-edition Cliff Paul sneaker. The character proved to be worthy of thousands of conversations:

-@CliffPaul has over 24,000 followers and within minutes of the commercial launch became a trending topic on Twitter.

-The commercial was viewed over 500,000 times in the first week of launch.

-Cliff Paul has generated over 400 Million total Twitter impressions, with 66 Million over All-Star Weekend alone.

We debuted Cliff (played by Chris) to millions of basketball fans on national television, depicting the two long-lost brothers giving great assists in their own respective worlds before colliding at a State Farm office. We engaged sports celebrities, social influencers, and media partners to incorporate Cliff Paul into real conversation about sports and culture. Meanwhile @CliffPaul carried out one-on-one conversations with fans and his bro on Twitter. On the ground, we supplied fans with 7,000 Cliff Paul disguise kits and fatheads at select Clippers games to enable participation with the icon. To keep people guessing, we had the brothers make a special side-by-side cameo appearance for 8 Million fans watching All-Star Weekend. In a follow-up spot, we further evolved the sibling relationship—and the value of State Farm—by having Chris and Cliff recall epic assist after epic assist. Fans were encouraged to “vote” for their favorite via hashtags #AssistLikeCliff, #AssistLikeChris.