With Gellman Hire, Esurance Looks to Take On Advertising Giants

Gellman will be chief marketing officer, reporting to Esurance Chief Executive Officer Gary Tolman in San Francisco. He held marketing roles for the past 10 years at Wells Fargo, the auto insurer said today in a statement.

Allstate has ramped up advertising spending to win customers from rivals such as Berkshire Hathaway Inc.’s Geico, which advertises using a gecko, an adventurous pig and a camel that loves Wednesdays; and Progressive Corp., which counts on spunky saleswoman Flo. Allstate spent $887 million on ads last year, compared with $1.2 billion from Geico, according to data compiled by SNL Financial.