Jul 23, 2008 6:03 AM, PROMO Xtra

Geico's Caveman shakes his groove thing on the Ecast juke network.

Even cavemen need to get out on the town now and then. So insurance provider Geico is taking its trademark Neanderthals out dancing, via an interactive promo campaign running on the Ecast in-bar jukebox network.

Geico’s “Dancing Caveman” began appearing this month on Ecast’s broadband-enabled music players in hundreds of bars and nightclubs in the New Jersey and Connecticut markets.

In the campaign, Ecast users see promotional banners for the Geico campaign in the course of making their music selections. If they chose to click through one of the ads, they are offered a choice of controlling a disco Geico Caveman or a classic roll-n-roller using game controls branded by Geico.

With another click, the caveman of their choice is made to strut his stuff. And after the brief performance, the user is invited to take a short survey on insurance-related questions via the Ecast touch screen. In return, the user gets access to a preset music playlist that corresponds to the selected genre, disco or straight rock.

Geico has been running “Dancing Caveman” broadcast spots for several months now that end with the line, “Geico probably thinks this is easy too.” That tag is also featured in the display ads the company is running on Ecast.

Geico is reportedly the first insurance company to make use of the Ecast out-of-home network, which has touch screen media players in 10,000 bars and restaurants around the country. The campaign is taking aim at the hard-to-reach 21 to 34 demographic, who go out for entertainment several nights a week.

“Our Cavemen represent the ease of signing up with Geico and are now synonymous with the brand,” Geico Marketing Vice President Ted Ward said in a statement. “Like Geico’s other Caveman promotions, this one combines humor with the ‘ease’ message to reach and poll an audience that is not at home in front of their TVs or PCs. “

Ecast cites a 2007 Arbitron study that found that three quarters of the patrons in Ecast-equipped bars took notice of the devices’ touch screens and read the content display. One third of patrons in those bars actually interacted with the Ecast screens, the report found.

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