Allstate hikes advertising spending, signs on as college football sponsor.

Allstate is tying a portion of its marketing to college football games. It has signed with ESPN and ABC as a major sponsor of the current season of college football and the Bowl Championship Series.

Allstate will also sponsor the "Good Hands Play of the Game" on ABC. Allstate will be mentioned when the BCS standings are broadcast on ABC and ESPN media. The second-largest home and auto writer in the United States will also be part of the ESPN Tailgate Tour when it appears at seven college campuses.

Allstate will tie the sponsorship to its print ad campaign with a tagline, "These hands know the key to a good drive is good protection. Our hands help protect your drive at a great price," that will be shown with a close-up of a football player's hands.

Allstate Corp. will increase its advertising spending from $75 million to $125 million this year to capitalize on growth opportunities ha its standard auto and homeowners business, its chief financial officer said.

"Now that we are getting the kinds of margins--the pricing adequacy, the return adequacy--that we want pretty much on a national basis, it's the time to invest for growth," Allstate CFO Daniel Hale told institutional investors at the 2003 Keefe, Bruyette & Woods Insurance Conference.

Hale noted that some insurers at times have put far too much money into advertising, only to realize they weren't getting the bang lot the buck and had to cut back. "We have to be sure that on an ongoing basis we're watching what the right level is," he said. "We want to be sure we're monitoring and we maintain a sustainable level that makes sense from an overall profitability perspective."

Property/Casualty Marketplace is compiled by Managing Editor Lynna Goch.