Geico's Silly Ads Are Working

Give the gecko a raise. Geico’s green mascot and its other anthropomorphic spokesmen pitched their way through $935 million in advertising in 2013, almost three times the average spent by the rest of the 10 biggest insurance companies.

The generous spending seems to be working. Geico’s premium income increased 11.2 percent last year, according to figures from the Nomura Group compiled by Property Casualty 360. For the first time, the direct-marketing insurer passed Allstate to become the second-largest provider in the hypercompetitive auto insurance market. Geico reached $18.57 billion in auto premiums, still way behind State Farm, with $33.4 billion.