"Jake from State Farm" TikTok

State Farm and creative agency TMA built a home for Jake from State Farm on TikTok to reach younger audiences, increase cultural resonance, and drive relatability. Jake has become a TikTok creator, proving that a 100-year-old insurance brand can kick it with Gen-Z and find success by rooting its strategy in culture, creator collaboration, and community-building.

Content is created exclusively for TikTok to build Jake’s persona and differentiate it from other marketing mediums. Instead of traditional video cut-downs, brand messaging, or #InsuranceTok, Jake jumps on trends, shares hot takes, and spreads “good neighbor” vibes. He also slips in the memes because we’ve got to give the people what they want, right? Jake regularly sports the cleanest fits for #FashionTikTok ("uhh...khakis?"), gets in on #LetsPlay (gaming), and participates in other trending conversations normally out of reach for insurance brands.

To reach new audiences and build Jake’s community, he partnered with 12 creators across a mix of content styles and demographics. Creators who sing, act, dance, cook, hoop, and style captured content with Jake, contributing to an estimated 100K+ followers. With each collaboration, Jake unexpectedly stars in the creator’s storytelling and drives followers to his page to check out another video featuring the creator.

Always-on community engagement allows Jake to interact with fans while seeking trending conversations to further engage the TikTok community. Custom responses allow Jake to show up in a self-aware way in comments on his TikTok videos (reactive) and relevant viral content (proactive). Prioritizing this has led to more than 2,100 custom engagements, garnering 1.25M comment likes and 7K replies. These days, they’re asking him about more than what he’s wearing.

Jake’s channel has grown 470K followers (+284%) and reached 1.6M likes in 2022, achieving twice the engagement rates of brand averages. Jake’s audience has collectively watched over 6 years (Sprinklr) of his content. While the State Farm brand is ubiquitous, Jake’s growing follower and engagement metrics indicate that Gen Z and Millennial consumers are intentionally seeking out, relating to, and engaging with the brand through Jake as a cultural figure.