Geico has spent more than 25 years turning a talking gecko into one of the most recognizable characters in American advertising. Now the company wants that brand equity to do more than sell car insurance.
Arianna Orpello, Geico’s chief marketing officer, says the insurer does not have an awareness problem when it comes to auto coverage. The gap is elsewhere. 'We do have an additional product line awareness problem,' she says.
That matters because auto insurance remains the foundation and vast majority of Geico’s business. The company wants consumers who know it for car insurance to think of it for home and renters insurance, motorcycles, boats, personal liability, and business insurance as well.
Orpello joined Geico in January after years in financial services. She says the marketing team is shifting from a model built around traditional advertising and auto insurance toward one that uses data to read customer behavior more precisely. Geico is looking at signals such as visits to product and cancellation pages, customer calls, and poor service experiences to identify when a customer may be preparing to shop around.
The company is also rebuilding parts of its marketing workflow around AI. Orpello says Geico’s marketing operations and transformation team built an AI road map and launched five pilots in roughly four months. She declined to disclose the results or the details of the pilots, but said they are already driving business results.
AI is also changing how consumers search for insurance. Orpello says adapting to AI-mediated shopping is one of her top two priorities. Tools that can research policies, compare coverage, and surface options now sit between insurers and customers. Geico is studying how that behavior is evolving and trying to make sure its products appear in AI-generated results.
The company is also thinking about how to work with AI platforms as their advertising tools develop. That could matter after consumers arrive. Orpello says people who research policies and competitors through AI may show up already informed and expecting more from the insurer’s own digital experience.
'How do we evolve the destination experience for customers and consumers that are going to be really, really smart and knowledgeable coming in,' she says, 'and don’t want a website that’s just static and hasn’t taken into account all the great work that they’ve already done to understand and study the marketplace?'
Geico is applying similar logic to existing customers. Orpello says nearly 60% of consumers shop for auto insurance within 12 months. The company is using data to identify relevant products based on life stage, location, and assets, so it can market outside auto more precisely.
The gecko is changing too. With generative AI, Geico can place the character in different settings depending on what a viewer is watching. Orpello says someone pausing a show such as 'Bridgerton' could see the gecko in a Victorian setting, while a sports audience could see it react to the game. Geico has also experimented with the character interacting with basketball star Azzi Fudd.
The media mix is shifting as well. Geico is moving away from linear cable and toward creators and live experiences, while directing more marketing dollars to insurance products outside auto.
For a 90-year-old company, the bet is simple. Keep the mascot central. Use data, AI, and personalization to widen the funnel. In a market where consumers can compare faster and switch faster, brand fame is useful only if it converts. Capital rewards clear rules, and marketing now has to follow the customer, not the other way around.
