The Legend of Dan Tullis

Everyone knows that there are numerous advertising avenues that can be used to promote a product or service and each of those methods have their pros and cons. For example, televisions ads bring sight and sound to the table but are often expensive. Radio ads, on the other hand, can only provide a listening experience - one of many factors that makes radio advertising more affordable.

I began hearing the following radio ad on the local sports station about six years ago and it seems to always pop up again each spring. Each time I hear this ad, it makes me consider the clash of marketing budgets and the act of promoting a somewhat dull product like life insurance.


I’m an advertising nerd so I'm always looking past or over an ad’s message in order to dissect the elements of the ad. In the above ad, a customer named Dan Tullis contacts an insurance agent named Joel Clark. Near the end of the ad, a narrator provides an "800" number for listeners to call for more information. These 3 voices are deep and fitting for a radio ad but after multiple listenings over the years, I’m convinced that all 3 of those voices are from the same person.

While researching my theory about this ad, I discovered that Dan Tullis is an actual person. His IMDb page credits him with acting roles in several movies and TV shows as well as the voiceover work for Select Quote Insurance, as heard above. Here’s a clip of Mr. Tullis in his recurring role of “Officer Dan” on Married with Children:

While I'm glad that I'm now able to put Dan Tullis' face to his name, that's about the only info that my research provided. I still don't know how or why Dan Tullis came to be the voice of Select Quote Insurance but I bet there’s a great story there!

I'm also not sure why Select Quote Insurance opted to have such a similar voice represent multiple parts in their radio ad. You would think that radio ads require more distinction between voices due to the lack of a visual accompaniment. But maybe budgeting did play a factor, as I mentioned above. It could be that Mr. Tullis' fee prohibited the hiring of other voice actors. It’s also possible that the sound engineers responsible for constructing this ad realized Mr. Tullis' voice could be manipulated to sound like other voices when compacting this lengthy conversation into its short timeframe. Perhaps this was all done by design to get conversations about life insurance started by people like me. MIND = BLOWN.

But seriously...if you happen to have any background on this ad or Mr. Tullis' involvement, please share. I would love to put an end to the 6+ years of questions that pop into my mind each and every time I hear this ad!

Top photo courtesy of the Married With Children Wiki.

The Great Insurance Advertisement Boom

For as many types of businesses that have existed over the centuries, business leaders have held just as many opinions on the value of advertising. Equally numerous are the factors that influence decisions to advertise, including a company’s industry, market and need to increase or maintain sales.

Companies that supply desirable products within a competitive industry will seemingly always need advertising. All companies will stray from that need to varying degrees, which makes it difficult to develop a concrete advertising formula. This is a good thing, as it keeps people like me employed.

Insurance (health, auto, home, etc.) is a product that we all need but we don’t like to spend a lot of time researching our options within this industry. Our priority level for this research is so low that we often don’t realize the immense size of the insurance industry. But take notice of all the insurance advertising around you on a daily basis and you’ll quickly realize the national players within the insurance industry are spending ad money like breweries and automobile manufacturers.

According to this July 2013 AdvertisingAge article, Geico benefited from $921 million in measured media spending, making it the 5th most advertised megabrand from all industries in 2012. Oh to have a marketing budget that size!!

Let's take a look at advertising practices from five of the big-time players in this curious industry. Hopefully, this collection of information and samples will help you realize your awareness of insurance advertising (or lack thereof).

GEICO

Backed by Warren Buffet, Geico utilizes a unique marketing approach by featuring multiple characters within mini-campaigns that...really don't promote insurance. This post from The Financial Brand covers this concept more in-depth. Strategy be darned, Geico covers all the bases extremely well. There’s no excuse for having never seen this clip from the popular “Happier Than” campaigns.

FARMERS INSURANCE

Farmers Insurance has been making a very strong push with their video ads that are used on television and as pre-roll advertisements. Noticing their increased activity actually prompted me to write this post. This post on ClickZ by Matt Kapko highlights Farmers' smart use of a familiar jingle at the end of each of their video ads.

Being a huge golf nut, I really enjoy the Dick Fowler, PI campaign that Farmers kicked off this month.

AFLAC

Everyone knows the duck. We've all been keeping up with the Aflac duck's injury rehab through a series of TV ads that have been running throughout 2013, featured here in a nice collection on Adweek.com.

Included in Aflac's advertising muscle is a very sophisticated website that contains pages and pages of information. If the high quality of their TV ads for insurance didn't bring up a concern about overkill, this advanced website might do the trick.

Now that college football is back, we'll be seeing the Aflac duck posing trivia questions and appearing in ads like these during games this fall.

ALLSTATE

The company that reminds you about the unsuspected impact of Mayhem is barely holding on to the #2 spot in the national ranking of car insurers, as explained in this article from ChicagoBusiness.com. But Allstate is maintaining a steady presence thanks to advertising and sponsorships. As with Aflac, Allstate ramps up their game during college football season (no pun intended). I love how the Allstate “Good Hands” logo is smartly positioned to maximize impressions during games.

STATE FARM

The #1 car insurer in the country mixes some of the quirky techniques examined above with more traditional advertising tactics. State Farm's recent video ads feature actual State Farm agents, just like the one seen in the following ad.

Like Farmers, State Farm utilizes a familiar jingle and celebrity endorsements from popular athletes. This New York Times article explains how the partnership between State Farm and the NBA's Chris Paul came to be.

If for no other reason, this intense advertising competition within the insurance industry exists because...everyone else is doing it. In all seriousness, I think this clamoring for your attention stems from a point that I made earlier in this post. The company that becomes our insurance provider doesn't receive the same level of consideration that is used when we are deciding on which smartphone or laptop to purchase. Given this notion, it makes sense for these insurance companies to make every effort to be in front of you as often as possible with an amusing (not boring) advertisement.