An emu? As a insurance company’s mascot? Yes, it really happened. Liberty Mutual has had a longstanding ad campaign featuring people standing in front of the Statue of Liberty talking about insurance. However, they felt these standing ads weren’t standing out. So, they created Limu the Emu and his sidekick Doug (a human). According to Adweek, a Liberty Mutual spokesperson said that when a company doesn’t have a spokesperson, “it’s 29 seconds of stock photos and 1 second of brand positioning.” This highlights one of the major differences between advertising on traditional media and online marketing. Online, you can build a relationship with customers by connecting them with engaging, useful information. Not emus. But you do gotta love the glasses.
Here’s the article from Adweek Magazine.