If anyone picked their March Madness brackets based on the talent in Geico’s campaign for the tournament, they might find themselves in good shape: Both of the college stars featured in its work, UConn Huskies guard Azzi Fudd and Michigan Wolverines guard Trey McKenney, are headed to the Final Four.
The marketing team at Geico wasn’t purposefully trying to pick winners, according to CMO Arianna Orpello. Instead, they were largely focused on finding athletes with stories that matched the narrative the company is trying to convey in its docuseries campaign about families and support systems. The docuseries approach, Orpello said, is meant to help Geico stand out in the sports space, which is crowded with insurance companies.
“Geico has always tried to redefine the storytelling of the category,” Orpello, who joined from Goldman Sachs three months ago, told Marketing Brew. “That’s been happening for over 30 years, mostly in the traditional advertising space, and…we really tried to think about, ‘How do we create a different kind of platform for NCAA than we have in any of the other sports?’”
The resulting campaign, a three-part docuseries about Fudd, McKenney, and WNBA star and UConn grad Napheesa Collier, marks the start of Orpello’s effort to differentiate Geico in the insurance category, in part by betting more on women’s sports, she said.
Go the distance
The docuseries, Miles that Matter, focuses on moments of transition—McKenney is making his March Madness debut, and Fudd is about to enter the WNBA Draft as the projected No. 1 pick—and how parents support their children in those moments, often with conversations during car rides to and from practices and games.
“We really do believe that there’s a real connection to all of these transitions in life and the car,” Orpello said. “It used to be that you sat at the dinner table and you had these connected conversations with your parents or your caregivers, and now that happens in the car, too.”
In addition to Miles that Matter, which is streaming on Paramount+, Geico, an official NCAA sponsor, is set to have a presence on the ground at both the men’s and women’s Final Fours with fan fests that include photo ops and merch drops. The company is also the presenting sponsor of youth basketball events at both Final Fours, all as part of an effort to drive consideration, likability, favorability, and, eventually, new business, especially among women, Orpello said.
“We don’t have an awareness problem,” she said. “We’re trying to connect…It is smart commercial business for us to be in women’s sports and in places where women want us to be.”
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Geico, which is owned by Berkshire Hathaway, reported a decrease in its pretax underwriting profit for the fourth quarter of 2025 due in part to an increase in ad spend. Across the financial and insurance categories, total ad spend increased by about 14% YoY in the second half of 2025, up to more than $6.6 billion, per MediaRadar stats cited by Emarketer.
Orpello is also tracking social metrics like shares, engagements, and sentiment around the campaign, which has so far been about 95% positive, she told us. When Geico announced its multiyear partnership with Fudd earlier this month, the brand had its best-performing day of the year in terms of engagements, mentions, and impressions, according to Orpello. Engagement with Instagram static posts featuring Fudd is 1,231% higher than Geico’s benchmark, Reels engagement is 392% higher, and TikToks are 1,459% higher, according to the company. (Geico didn’t share its exact internal social benchmarks.)
Leading pass
With its overall NCAA deal, Geico isn’t entirely new to women’s sports, but Fudd is the first woman athlete sponsored by the company, and Orpello said Geico’s media spend still skews more toward men’s sports. That’s something she’s working to change, including by hiring someone to lead Geico’s women’s sports efforts specifically. Geico is also sponsoring Deep Blue Sports + Entertainment’s upcoming Business of Women’s Sports Summit.
Orpello said she’s hoping to one day expand further into other sports outside of basketball, particularly flag football. Geico will be sticking with basketball for the foreseeable future, though, with plans to activate alongside Fudd as she is drafted into the WNBA, and likely in whichever city she ends up playing for, Orpello added.
The brand will also continue to embrace storytelling and shoulder programming around women’s sports, Orpello said. It’s something of a gap in the market, as well as an area where Geico can “stake claim on” as part of its efforts to stand out among its competitors.
“These [women’s sports] experiences are deep and meaningful,” Orpello said. “People don’t miss a game, and they don’t miss a story around their favorite athlete, and they want more of it. I think the question is, ‘How do we use our heft and our spend to drive that up?’”
03/31/26 Correction: This story has been updated to reflect that Geico will not be activating at the WNBA Draft.
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