What is the cost of being everywhere? About $1 billion a year.
Geico, the auto insurer whose advertising shows up on billboards, the Internet and many television shows, spent $993.8 million for marketing in 2011, according to data compiled by SNL Financial. That is the most in a single year by any car insurer and is up 10 percent from the $902.7 million the company spent in 2010.
The increase in spending is part of a multi-year, still-escalating arms race of insurers who want to be even-bigger household names than they already are. State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Co., the largest home and auto insurer in the U.S. as measured by premium, took second place with a dramatic 29 percent increase in its marketing expenditures to $813.5 million, SNL found.
The surge by State Farm sent it past Allstate Corp. in spending, according to SNL.
“It is not stopping, there are no signs of slowing down just yet,” said Patrick Sullivan, a writer with trade publication Auto Insurance Report. “They are just marching along. It’s pretty crazy.”
Geico, owned by Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc., didn’t respond to several requests for comment. State Farm, known for its “Like a Good Neighbor” jingle, confirmed the accuracy of the SNL figures. SNL compiled the list of big spenders from reports filed with state-insurance departments earlier this year.
