I’m not a big fan of the Geico commercials. I think the bundle of money with the eyes is totally stupid, I’m not a fan of the cavemen, and the gecko is okay, but no AFLAC duck. 
(Although the AFLAC commercials this summer have been pretty lame, so maybe the duck has run it’s course, too, but for a while those were some of the most entertaining and clever commercials on television.) But Geico, despite a series of ad campaigns that I rate as so-so (and yes, it is personal taste, I understand that), hit a great strategy in their last few cavemen commercials and so did the music group involved.
For a while now I’ve noticed this song during the caveman commercials–Let Me Be Myself. I liked it, but I figured it was some commercial jingle and never considered things beyond that. But the more I heard the song, the more I liked it and I started paying attention to the entire commercial when I heard the song. Before this, I would flip away when the Geico commercials came on because I didn’t like them. I even stopped everything I was doing to listen to this 30-second song.
And then the other night I started wondering if maybe it was a real song. Maybe I should do a little searching online and see if I could find out. After all, I loved the Secret Agent Man song in the Chase ads and found out that was a real song. And while I was thinking this, in the lower left-hand corner of the screen a little three-line graphic came up. It gave the name of the song and the name of the band. Jackpot!
I don’t know what Geico paid 3 Doors Down to use their song, but it was a win-win for both band and company. It’s a win for Geico because I actually sat through their ads, something I didn’t do before, and it’s a win for 3 Doors Down because while I’d heard of them, I hadn’t listened to their music. Whoever had the idea to add the musical credit to the commercial was a genius.
Thanks to licensing their music to Geico, I hopped on iTunes and found the song I liked. I also listened to more song samples from the rest of the album, decided I liked them, and bought the whole thing. I can’t be the only one who’s done this, so it’s pushed sales for the band.
Now if there was just some big brand who bought lots of TV air time who wanted to use, oh, say a book in their ads.
