MarketCast Taps Internal Leaders to Shape What’s Next for Brands Looking to Maximize the Impact of their Advertising

CULVER CITY, Calif. – May 1, 2025 – MarketCast, a leading technology and data-enabled market research and analytics firm, announced today that seasoned industry leaders Amy Fenton and Paul Forgue have been appointed Co-Presidents to lead the company into its next chapter. Together, they will focus on accelerating MarketCast’s product innovation and delivering faster, smarter, AI-powered research solutions to clients, including some of the world’s top brands and advertisers.

Fenton, a well-established authority in advertising and brand research, has been instrumental in MarketCast’s transformation since stepping in as Chief Analytics and Operations Officer in 2022. With a track record for execution, Fenton has helped elevate how MarketCast delivers research insights and value to its clients. Prior to MarketCast, she held senior leadership roles at Nielsen, Kantar, and IPSOS, and currently sits on the board of the Advertising Research Foundation (ARF).

For his part, Forgue, who joined MarketCast as Chief Financial Officer in 2024, brings deep financial expertise, operational excellence and a strong track record growing businesses across multiple industries. During his tenure at MarketCast, Forgue has driven efforts to modernize the company’s business intelligence systems, improve operational efficiency, and support the business through a period of transformative growth.

“Amy and Paul bring the ideal mix of technology and advertising expertise, financial acumen, and leadership to guide MarketCast’s next chapter,” said Ahmed Wahla, Partner with Kohlberg, MarketCast’s lead financial investor. “Together, they’ll accelerate our technology roadmap, delivering data-driven solutions that help our clients thrive and win in a rapidly evolving, and often complicated media landscape.”

MarketCast has evolved over the past few years from a boutique custom research firm into a leading technology and data-enabled insights and analytics company. Today, MarketCast provides AI-powered advertising research to more than 80 percent of the top U.S. advertisers. Its Brand Effect platform is the gold standard for measuring ad breakthrough, while its brand research and data science capabilities are trusted by the world’s most influential marketers to guide creative, media, and brand strategy.

Familiar characters from Liberty Mutual, Allstate and Progressive were standouts for their consistent brand cues, humor and likability according to MarketCast’s data

Culver City, Calif. – March 31, 2025 — MarketCast, a global marketing research firm, has released its latest insights into the performance of U.S. insurance brand mascots in advertising. The findings, derived from MarketCast Brand Effect platform that surveys 20,000 real audiences daily, showcase which iconic characters are breaking through and driving brand and message recall among viewers from January 2024 to February 2025.

Liberty Mutual’s LiMu Emu and Doug Take the Top Spot: Liberty Mutual’s dynamic duo, LiMu Emu and Doug, emerged as the leading insurance mascots in Ad Breakthrough, Messaging, and Branding categories. Their consistent use of recognizable brand cues—including the bold yellow visuals, the Statue of Liberty imagery, and the catchy “Liberty, Liberty, Liberty” jingle—ensures that Liberty Mutual remains top of mind for audiences.

Allstate’s Mayhem Reigns in Likeability and Memorability: Allstate’s Mayhem continues to captivate audiences with its signature mix of chaos and humor, ranking first in both Ad Likeability and Most Memorable Ads. The character’s unpredictable storylines and rebellious personality set it apart, proving that a touch of destruction can make an ad unforgettable.

Progressive’s Character Lineup Delivers Strong Brand Recall: Progressive’s long-standing mascot, Flo, secured a high rank in Message Recall, second only to Mayhem. Meanwhile, Jamie solidified his rising star status, tying with Flo in Ad Breakthrough but outperforming her in Branding. Dr. Rick, known for his humorous “parent-life” lessons, landed third in Likeability, though brand attribution remains a challenge for his ads.

"Being fun or likable isn’t enough when it comes to having truly effective advertising for these brands," said Amy Fenton, Chief Operations and Creative Officer, MarketCast. "Our research shows that the most successful insurance campaigns have strong brand identity queues with clear, memorable messaging. They strike a delicate balance—making us laugh while ensuring we remember who the ad is for and what the main message is."

Top Insurance Mascot Winners by Category:

• Ad Breakthrough (Remember both Ad and Brand correctly):
  • Liberty Mutual – LiMu Emu (+9% above norm)
  • Allstate – Mayhem (+4% above norm)
  • Progressive – Flo & Jamie (both +3% above norm)

• Ad Recall (Remember the Ad correctly):
  • Allstate – Mayhem (+5% above norm)
  • GEICO – Gecko (+3% above norm)
  • Progressive – Dr. Rick (+2% above norm)
  • Liberty Mutual – LiMu Emu (+2% above norm)

• Branding (Attribute the Ad to the Correct Brand):
  • Liberty Mutual – LiMu Emu (+18% above norm)
  • Progressive – Jamie (+8% above norm)
  • Progressive – Flo (+6% above norm)

• Messaging (Recall the Main Message of the Ad):
  • Liberty Mutual – LiMu Emu (+16% above norm)
  • Progressive – Flo (+8% above norm)
  • Allstate – Mayhem (+7% above norm)

• Likeability (Like the Ad):
  • Allstate – Mayhem (+8% above norm)
  • Progressive – Dr. Rick (+4% above norm)
  • Liberty Mutual – LiMu Emu (+1% above norm)

MarketCast’s latest findings highlight the power of well-crafted branding and storytelling in insurance advertising. By leveraging familiar mascots and reinforcing brand identity through strategic cues, brands can ensure lasting audience impact. To learn more about MarketCast and its Brand Effect measurement, visit www.marketcast.com.

Media Contacts
Graham McKenna
MarketCast
Graham.McKenna@MarketCast.com

New MarketCast Ad Effect Express solution combines human research with proprietary AI to better predict advertising performance

Culver City, Calif. – Sept. 25, 2024 – Marketing research and intelligence company MarketCast today launched MarketCast Ad Effect Express, an innovative new advertising testing solution that brings together the power of human research with AI to better predict how TV, CTV, and digital advertising will perform across different audience segments.

Typical advertising testing is either survey-driven, with people watching ads and responding to researcher questions, or powered by AI models to predict human reactions with little human input. The human-powered research is in-depth but often expensive and slow. And the AI-powered models are speedy but often built upon narrow, outdated research. MarketCast Ad Effect Express combines the best of both worlds, delivering speed, scale, and accuracy, with cost efficiencies.

“Many of today’s AI-powered ad testing solutions sacrifice quality for speed by cutting humans out of the process,” said John Batter, CEO of MarketCast. “At MarketCast, we believe AI should amplify the voice of consumers in advertising research, not replace them. That's why MarketCast Ad Effect Express gives advertisers a smarter, faster, and more cost-effective way to test ads—without losing the power of the human connection.”

Looking under the hood, MarketCast Ad Effect Express is powered by the company's proprietary Audience AI, which uses fresh survey data as a foundation to train the AI models to amplify audience size and predict how real people will react to advertising. This allows advertisers to capture the subtle nuances of human opinions that AI solutions alone could miss. It also gives them access to hard-to-reach audiences without the heavy costs associated with obtaining audience sample.

MarketCast Ad Effect Express delivers ad testing research within 24-48 hours of submission and features facial and eye tracking to pinpoint second-by-second emotional reactions to ad creative. Additionally, it allows for responses to open-ended questions, which provides more context about advertising predictions, telling brands the reasons why (or why not) their ad creative will perform well once it’s in front of consumers.

MarketCast Ad Effect Express is now available. To learn more, contact us.