State Farm has "had to get creative" with its sports marketing, as the upended pro sports calendar has "brought fans a cornucopia of content in the last several weeks," according to Ryan Barwick of ADWEEK. The Jake from State Farm character recently has become "nearly as recognizable as his campaign's co-stars" in Thunder G Chris Paul, Packers QB Aaron Rodgers and Chiefs QB Patrick Mahomes. State Farm also "made a splash as one of the presenting sponsors" of ESPN's "The Last Dance," rolling out "deepfake commercials featuring former SportsCenter personalities." The documentary was released sooner than its original June air date, so State Farm and ESPN "made the deal during the first few weeks of the pandemic." State Farm also sponsored the NBA's H-O-R-S-E contest on ESPN. State Farm CMO Rand Harbert now has a "less challenging problem on his hands" with live sports back. Harbert: "It feels good to be back, but in some ways it went from nothing to oversaturation. We have a strategy for baseball, for the NBA, and for the NFL. Now all of a sudden those things are happening at the same time." Harbert added that it is "too early to judge the ROI and how different those metrics might look this year." State Farm is an official marketing partner of the NBA, and while the start of the '20-21 season remains unclear, Harbert said that the brand "is ready" (ADWEEK.com, 10/13).
