Geico pre-roll ads interrupt again and again to grab attention
Geico has been trying to grab people’s attention online with its pre-roll ads, and it continues to do so with its latest, ‘Interrupt-a-palooza’ campaign that interrupts and then interrupts again.
Geico Interrupt-a-palooza reinvents the pre-roll
The first Geico pre-roll campaign, ‘Unskippable,’ won plenty of accolades for its freeze-frame live action silliness and ability to entertain, where many pre-roll ads were highly skippable. It returned with ‘Fast Forward,’ which appeared to skip the middle of an ad to get to the point. ‘Crushed’ smashed the actors as the sets closed in, making for entertaining mayhem.
With ‘Interrupt-a-palooza,’ Geico and The Martin Agency again reinvent the now-tired pre-roll, cramming in more action, information and branding into 15-seconds than ever before. The company admits upfront that the ad is interrupting the viewer, then the spot in progress is also interrupted by more action, plus a falling logo.
‘Nighty Night’ sees two people in bed talking about how glad they are that they switched to Geico. They’re then interrupted by two people on elliptical machines crashing through their bedroom wall as they tout Geico’s 24-7 access. Both are then interrupted by a Geico logo that flies in from off camera. Other spots in the six-spot campaign follow a similar path.
“In the previous three rounds of pre-roll work, we played with the concept of time. First by skipping to the end, then fast-forwarding through the middle, and last year, condensing our ads,” said Neel Williams, vice president, creative director at The Martin Agency. “This year, we took a different approach, but still kept things very self-aware. Rather than apologize for the interruption, we thought it would be fun to lean into it.”
Associate creative director for the agency, Mauricio Mazzariol, added: “Getting interrupted before watching an online video is not exactly a Ferris wheel ride. So, these new Interrupt-a-palooza ads are supposed to bring some humor to the issue by embracing the disruptive nature of pre-roll and taking it to a whole new level.”
