News | BRENDAN GIBBONS | LBB
Stephanie Courtney joins Progressive Insurance, Arnold Worldwide and Station Film’s Brendan Gibbons at SXSW in Austin for a conversation about her character and the Flo campaign’s enduring appeal.
Eighteen years after being introduced as the checkout girl at the Progressive Insurance Superstore, the loveable, quirky and insurance-obsessed Flo has become something of a cultural phenomenon. When Arnold Worldwide, Progressive’s Boston-based advertising agency, began working on the business in 2008, they were challenged with advertising a category you couldn’t hold in your hand, one that was intangible and at the time not readily available to consumers online, according to Arnold Worldwide’s chief creative officer Sean McBride. “At the beginning, buying insurance on the internet was a leap,” Sean said to an enthusiastic audience in Austin at SXSW. “The campaign set out to make the concept more human.”
If Red Carpet appearances, Flo Halloween costumes and adoring fans who’ve ‘grown up with Flo’ are any indication – along with Progressive’s top-tier status as an insurance company – the team has succeeded. Meghan Walsh, Progressive’s business leader of integrated marketing, Station Film’s Brendan Gibbons who has directed the commercial campaign for the past 14 years, and Flo herself, actor Stephanie Courtney, joined Sean in conversation for the SXSW panel ‘Keep Calm & Flo On: Keeping an Enduring Icon Fresh & Funny.’
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