Appendix 1: Company Cases 571
3. Discuss issues of selecting advertising media for the May-
hem campaign. How might this process differ from that of
campaigns for other companies?
4. Based on the information in this case, how might Allstate
measure the effectiveness of the Mayhem campaign?
5. Has the Mayhem campaign been effective? Support your
answer.
Sources: Ashley Rodriguez, “How Allstate’s Mayhem Disrupted the
Chatter around Insurance,” Advertising Age, June 10, 2015, http://
adage.com/print/298779; Steve Daniels, “GEICO Overtakes Allstate as
No. 2 Auto Insurer,” Advertising Age, March 3, 2014, http://adage.com/
print/291947; E.J. Schultz, “Allstate’s Mayhem Joins Twitter . . . Now
What,” Advertising Age, October 14, 2013, p. 28; Anthony Crup, “All–
state’s Marketing Boss Talks Up ‘March Mayhem,’” Ad Week, March
25, 2014, www.adweek.com/print/156471; and advertisements and
other information accessed at www.allstatenewsroom.com and www
.allstate.com/mayhem-is-everywhere.aspx, accessed September 2015.
The intense competition, big budgets, and focus on con–
sumer advertising have kept industry market share dynamic.
In fact, in the last year, GEICO moved into the number-two
spot behind State Farm and is pulling away with a 10.8 percent
share of the auto insurance market to Allstate’s 10.0 percent.
Allstate has grown its auto insurance business in recent years.
But GEICO’s growth has been consistently stronger. With
that development, Allstate is left to reconsider the value that
it is getting out of its advertising investments and just how it
might slow GEICO down GEICO and retake its number-two
marketposition.
Questions for Discussion
1. Why has Allstate’s “good hands” slogan withstood the test
of time to become advertising’s longest-running slogan?
2. Analyze Mayhem ads based on the process of creating an
advertising message as outlined in the text (for Mayhem ads,
check out www.allstate.com/mayhem-is-everywhere.aspx).
Company Case 13
SunGard: Building Sustained
Since then, with the help of a few acquisitions, SunGard
has grown steadily. It’s now one of the world’s leading software
and technology services companies, with nearly $3 billion in
annual revenues. SunGard now provides processing solutions
for the financial services industry, K–12 education, and public
