State Farm and Apple TV+’s Severance: Measuring the Ad’s Emotional Match

When it comes to brand partnerships, emotional resonance can make the difference between a target audience forgetting an ad, remembering it, or acting on it. Recently, State Farm collaborated with the popular Apple TV+ show “Severance” on an ad campaign centered around young adults getting “severed” from their parents’ insurance and having to navigate the process on their own.

The concept is clever and timely, but does it connect with people’s emotional needs enough to motivate them to sign up with State Farm? 

Evaluating the State Farm – Severance campaign

The collaboration between State Farm and “Severance” achieved an Emotional Match score of 58, according to Magid’s Brand eDNA consumer insights tool. This rating indicates the effectiveness of a partnership in converting interest into action. This moderate score suggests room for improvement, as higher scores typically correlate with stronger consumer conversions.

State Farm’s collaboration with “Severance” plays on the theme of being “severed” from a parents’ insurance policy, which is a clever and memorable take. When the 26-year-old finds herself daunted by navigating insurance alone, Jake from State Farm reassures her it doesn’t need to be scary and that they’re “always ready to help.”

Brand eDNA tells us that simplicity, good value, and professionalism are core expectations for insurance consumers, meaning these attributes are what people really want from their insurance provider. Emphasizing “not scary” and “always ready to help” in this ad can help underscore State Farm’s value in meeting these core expectations, so that the ad not only breaks through the noise with this memorable creative, but also uses that entry point to emphasize core purchase drivers.

Watch the State Farm and Apple TV+’s Severance Ad »

The values that matter in insurance messaging

For people making personal decisions about their safety and finances, simplicity in messaging is key. People seek straightforward, transparent interactions and reliable experiences to feel confident in their choices.

Emotional drivers heavily influence brand relationships, with positive alignments boosting customer loyalty and Net Promoter Scores (NPS). Similarly, a poor match can do the opposite. Emotional “detractors” harm brand health if misaligned with consumer expectations or if they misfire across different audience segments. For example, many brands make the mistake of over-emphasizing affordability, which risks undercutting perceptions of quality and trust.

Insurance brands shouldn’t get too lost in the creative

Seemingly determined to shed their stigmatized “mundane” industry identity, some insurance brands latch on to humor in their advertising campaigns. These ads may help a lot with brand recognition, but not necessarily with conversions. Conveying core consumer values like clarity, honesty, and reliability are what actually convince consumers to get a quote on a new policy.

However, this doesn’t mean creativity has no benefits for insurance ads, but it must compliment core industry values to truly be effective. For example, Geico’s famous tagline, “So easy a caveman could do it,” is silly yet drives home the message that their services are simple to navigate.

Maximize ad effectiveness through emotional alignment

In today’s budget-conscious climate, people prefer being sold on value and efficacy, and less on entertainment. If humor is in play, it must support—and not distract from—vital brand promises and consumer needs. Anchoring the creative elements of this campaign to those key emotional drivers would help encourage more people (and 26 year olds getting “severed”) to opt in(nie) for State Farm insurance.