Arnold Worldwide
The advertising agency Arnold Worldwide is a full-service agency founded in 1946 in Boston, Massachusetts. It is a part of the Havas Group, which is a large communications group based in France. Over the years, they have worked with a number of big-name companies such as Jack Daniel’s, Hardee’s and Progressive Insurance. Just recently, the mortgage company AmeriSave also chose Arnold Worldwide as their creative agency (Bonilla, 2021).
Arnold Worldwide typically uses a very dry sense of humor in their work. This is especially
evident in their Progressive Insurance campaigns. These commercials are very memorable because of
the iconic character Flo. She often finds herself in whacky situations while informing people of the
services they can get with Progressive. According to Arnold Worldwide’s chief creative officer, Sean
McBride, the campaign’s success has more to do with execution rather than the silly scenarios that Flo
finds herself in. He states, “I do think there are two fundamental factors that decide whether spots get
laughs. Put simply, there are funny concepts, and there are funny executions. And, for me, execution
almost always wins. That’s not to say that great concepts don’t make for amazing ads. But the airwaves
are riddled with funny ideas rendered lame because of bad executions” (Taylor, 2019).
Arnold Worldwide is responsible for the popular “At Home with Baker Mayfield” Progressive campaign as well. These advertisements feature National Football League (NFL) quarterback Baker Mayfield and his wife “living” in Cleveland’s FirstEnergy Stadium and navigating some humorous situations. In the most recent edition to the series, rock and roll legend Alice Cooper makes and appearance as well. In this case, Arnold Worldwide understands the positive impacts a celebrity endorsement can have for a brand, like Progressive. “With celebrities vouching for or promoting their products, brands can increase awareness, trust and familiarity, which are important variables in the purchase decision-making process” (Okoli, 2020). Even if viewers are not actually fans of the celebrity, just knowing that there is someone famous promoting a product or service can impact their decision making.
Arnold Worldwide has a fairly active presence on social media. They can be found on many different platforms including Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and Instagram. After following along with their Instagram page for the past few weeks, I noticed that they post to their Instagram story much more often than their actual feed. If they are mentioned in an article, they often post that to their story, as well as links to purchase some of the products they have been advertising. For example, they recently posted an Instagram story for the book Dr. Rick Will See You Now along with a link for people to click which takes them directly to the website where they can purchase it. I think that they could be a bit more active with the content they are posting to their Instagram feed. In the few weeks I have been keeping up with their page, they have only posted three times outside of their story. While “quality over quantity” is something important to take into consideration, generally speaking, companies should be aiming for one Instagram post per day to get the most out of their social media (Anthony, How). With the number of companies that Arnold Worldwide works with, I think they should be able to produce more content than one post every few weeks.
I also checked out the Instagram page for WPP, another advertising agency, to compare the two social media pages. WPP posts much more frequently than Arnold Worldwide, sometimes over five times during one day. While I don't think Arnold Worldwide needs to be posting quite that much, I do think a little more consistency could have a positive impact on their social media image.
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Sources
Anthony, E. (n.d.). How often should your business post on social media? Digital Marketing Handled. Retrieved October 27, 2021, from https://www.revlocal.com/resources/library/blog/how-often-should-your-business-post-on-social-media.
Bonilla, B. (2021, August 4). Amerisave chooses Arnold as creative agency, aims to be the 'Pepsi' to Rocket Mortgage's 'Coke'. Ad Age. Retrieved October 19, 2021, from https://adage.com/article/agency-news/amerisave-chooses-arnold-creative-agency-aims-be-pepsi- rocket-mortgages-coke/2355181.
Okoli, A. (2020, October 18). Impact of celebrity endorsement on consumer buying behavior. Zoovu Blog. Retrieved October 29, 2021, from https://zoovu.com/blog/impact-of-celebrity-endorsement-on-consumer-buying-behavior/.
Progressive Insurance. (2021). Bts #2 with Baker and Emily Mayfield Season 3 | Progressive Exclusive. YouTube. Retrieved October 29, 2021, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Igntgbdp2c.
Taylor, C. (2019, March 15). What makes Flo from progressive effective? lessons for using humor in advertising. Forbes. Retrieved October 19, 2021, from https://www.forbes.com/sites/charlesrtaylor/2019/03/15/what-makes-flo-from-progressive-effective-lessons-for-using- humor-in-advertising/?sh=7012a2435216.
