A couple of months ago I wrote about Lifelock, the identity theft protection company that had exhibited ballsy marketing by having it’s CEO, Todd Davis, publicly give out his social security number as proof that the company firmly guaranteed its services.
You can read that first post here.
You may have seen these advertisements in the newspaper (where they have practiced sound direct response principles with their use of full page advertorials), TV commercials, and radio ads, all with Todd Davis blaring his social security number to anyone and everyone who would listen.
Seemed like a sound angle for that particular market.
But this morning I was making my daily blog rounds when I came across copywriter Ryan Healy’s blog, who had some interesting observations that Lifelock may not be as reputable as they seem.
You can check out his post by going here.
There is some actual statistical evidence that makes Lifelock out to be shady, and in some cases, downright deceptive.
I’m pretty sure that Lifelock has launched a national campaign, so no matter where in the country you may be reading this (international readers go to www.lifelock.com to get a taste) you may have seen these ads.
Does anyone have any evidence supporting Lifelock? Or discrediting them?
This is just an interesting and instructive marketing case study, and it will be interesting to see how Lifelock reacts to government pressure and public fraud accusatons.
-James D. Lee
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One Comment
Hey James,
Unfortunately all that ballsy advertising, like the CEO’s (Todd Davis) stunt to publish his SSN to prove the impenetrability of his program - wasn’t all that brilliant.
In fact, it was a miserable idea that may have expensed the company’s reputation.
There were recorded incidents of numerous attempts by individuals to apply for a Driver License using the SSN, and one successful attempt by someone who managed to ‘borrow’ $500 using the information.
Unfortunately the short term loan facility that granted the amount did not use any of the three main credit bureau’s to check the validity of the borrowers information - an important (and unstated) condition of Davis’s security package.
Not surprisingly, he continues to back the idea behind his company, despite the clear evidence against his claims - let the truth be told, that no security package/program can completely nullify the problem of identity theft, regardless of how creative (or stupid) a company’s A&P campaign is.
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