Lover of discounts, unicorns and tacos: Progressive's Flo in social media

Abstract

Flo, ‘lover of discounts, unicorns and tacos’, is a pioneering example of how brand characters can be leveraged to build a brand's presence in social media. At times, Flo has been the most popular brand character on Facebook and has helped to reinvigorate Progressive Insurance's once-stalled marketing efforts. Originally developed for traditional media, Progressive brought Flo to social media as part of its dual-presence strategy. This strategy involved the development of complementary, yet unique, digital footprints for its brand and its brand character, Flo, across popular social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter. In recounting this approach, this paper provides needed insights for brands considering the application of brand characters in social media.