Being executive vice president and chief agency, sales & marketing officer at State Farm hits home for Kristyn Cook.
When she was in sixth grade, her parents left their careers to invest in a State Farm agency outside of Pittsburgh, PA. As an adult, she spent some time as an agent herself in Chicago.
“Sometimes life has a way of working out like that,” says Cook. “That’s why I feel a tremendous responsibility in this role. Much of it is personal.”
As the slogan goes, “Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there,” the insurance and financial services company is on a mission to help people in their times of need. As CMO, Cook is tasked with bringing this mission to life through compelling storytelling. Sometimes that means naming rights for sports for arenas, sometimes that means showing up in gaming platforms and sometimes it means running a Super Bowl ad.
“Our role is to make those authentic connections with today’s customers and think about building awareness with the next generation of customers too,” she explains. “It’s all about staying relevant relative to culture.”
The company’s ads are known for their entertaining nature. Often starring Jake from State Farm (played by Kevin Miles) and celebrities. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Danny Devito starred in the company’s 2024 Super Bowl ad “Like a Good Neighbaaa.” Ludacris starred in the “Ludacris” spot. Jason Bateman in the “Bateman vs Batman” spot that ran during March Madness this year.
Basketball is a key sport for the brand – they have long shown up in the NBA, NCAA and WNBA. It’s also another personal connection for Cook. Her parent’s State Farm agency helped the family afford to put a basketball court in their yard, where she practiced regularly growing up, and ultimately landed a spot on the basketball team at Syracuse University. That experience shows up in her role as CMO.
“A lot of what I do is grounded in what sports has taught me,” says Cook. “I have the privilege and responsibility of stewarding this iconic brand forward. A lot of my past experiences have positioned me to do that. With an incredibly talented team of people – that take pride in what we do – we are always asking ourselves, what can we do more of?”
Brand Innovators caught up with Cook from her office in the Chicago area to discuss how the brand is thinking about the Super Bowl, the World Cup and Gamerhood, the company’s gaming reality TV game show on Twitch and YouTube. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
State Farm is known for being a culturally relevant brand. Can you tell me how you think about showing up in culture?
Our category is very competitive. We may not outspend, but we need to out market. Putting emphasis on culture – whether it’s entertainment or sports – is really important. There’s intersections with music and fashion that give us an opportunity to leverage storytelling prowess and reach different audiences. It’s about being bold and breakthrough. No one has higher expectations than we have for ourselves to keep that going.
Sometimes it means being strategic and planning and other times we have to position ourselves so that we can be reactive and opportunistic to break through. We always want to be smart with every dollar that we spend. We’re a mutual company. We’re really grounded in our customers. But at the same time, we have high standards in terms of being a leader in culture. We make bets in specific places that we know will have a big impact on where customers are. We are trying to create or be privy to lightning in the bottle moments.
The grounding piece is that we always want to be authentic to our brand identity and the assets that we get to bring to life, whether it’s Jake from State Farm, the color red, “Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there,” or the jingle.
Can you talk about the importance of sports for the brand?
Sports bring friends, families and good neighbors together. When you think about that sense of community, that is directly aligned with who we are at State Farm, and it’s also where the eyeballs are. That’s where we want to be. That may be naming rights, talent partnerships. And then a 360 degree approach in terms of how we build legs around sports, whether it’s digital, social, etc. We’re in football season right now and that continues to be a very dominant part of sports, especially in terms of the cultural platform.
We continue to see this growth in viewership, expanding its reach across demographics like women. Maybe we have Taylor [Swift] to thank for that, but regardless, it’s growing and it’s driving conversation far beyond the field. For a brand like State Farm, that’s a unique opportunity because we want to be culturally relevant. We want to make culture. Football gives us the scale, talent and storytelling potential to make that audience connection.
Will you be at the Super Bowl next year?
We always ask ourselves that question. We’ve had a recent history of doing that very well. This year we intentionally chose not to participate. It is a good example of demonstrating who we are because that decision helped us refocus the deep commitment we have to serving customers and being reliable and providing the support.
We evaluate the Super Bowl every year. It’s a big opportunity for every brand. We’ve been known to play in that space. I was very proud of “Like a Good Neighbaaa,” which won the USA Today Ad Meter in 2024. But at the same time, it’s not just showing up on that stage. It is an opportunity to have legs beyond that. We challenge ourselves to stretch and meet customers where they are and to do things that are unexpected, where you get that top value. That attention that is so important for our brand. So stay tuned is what I will say.
Can you talk about how you are showing up in gaming?
Gaming has engagement that goes much deeper than a :30 ad. Gamers are invested in spending time in their passion. We’re trying to show up where they are, but do it in a seamless way where they’re not saying, “I don’t want you there.” In 2022, we made a very strategic leap to go beyond sponsorship and commercials to create our own gaming-focused entertainment IP – the ultimate gaming neighborhood called Gamerhood. It is a reality TV game show that has been developing a pretty significant fan base on live streaming platforms, including Twitch and YouTube. It’s garnered millions of views. The goal is to introduce that next generation of State Farm customers to us in a world where insurance can be fun. We look at all these gaming personalities and it gives us an opportunity to insert our brand and tell stories.
Can you talk about how you show up in basketball and the WNBA in particular?
For decades, we’ve been embedded in basketball culture. We show up with humor and storytelling that reflect the heart of the game. We’ve been in women’s basketball for a long time – before it was cool. It’s driving our business outcomes too. The Assist platform helps us be this cultural force of basketball that shines a light on real life assists that builds trust and giving back in the communities. Recent spots that we did with Caitlin Clark, who was our team State Farm athlete, showcase and tell stories around her excellence on the field of play.
The NBA obviously is really important too, but at the same time, we’re just really proud of the growth of the W. When you think about that red thread, we are part of overtime, elite and select. We are a part of the NCAA, the NBA and the WNBA and unrivaled. A red thread flows through. It’s really an opportunity through basketball to tell our story and to connect with communities in a very unique and different way.
Will we be seeing State Farm at the FIFA World Cup?
Absolutely. It’s something that you can’t deny, in terms of the incredible growth. Certainly there’s international growth, but the growth that you see here in this country is really important for us as a domestic brand. We’re in the throes now of understanding all of the different pieces of the puzzle that we have that we can lean in and tell stories about – including talent. More to come, but of course, when you think about culture and how we want to shape culture and be there for those moments, I think FIFA gives us a great opportunity to do that.
What are the marketing trends you’re thinking about going into 2026?
Probably everyone will be consistent in saying technology and AI in particular. As we think about the role that technology is playing, it’s essentially reshaping our world. For a brand that’s built on human connection, we’re also trying to make sure that we’re meeting customers where they are. That means how you might experience our brand in a digital way. That means using AI in ways that are making us smarter and faster, but not less human.
We believe that it’s a blend and we continue to leverage it from a marketing standpoint, whether or not it’s how we analyze the work we’re doing, how we leverage speed in terms of our go-to-market strategies and our creative iterations or testing personalization. It’s also helping our humans – our brilliant people – to be more creative, to be more efficient and to drive outcomes that are more relevant to what customers want and need.
Sports will continue to play an important role in what marketers do. It’ll continue to be a cornerstone of our industry, given the opportunity to bring people and communities together. Our goal is to continue to be a brand leader in the sports world, especially with 18-to-49 year olds.
