Farmers Insurance soars back to FarmVille, CityVille et al this summer

The zeppelin is back, baby. (But unfortunately not that Zeppelin.) Farmers Insurance has announced that it will soon return to FarmVille this month with the familiar "Win a Ride on the Farmers Airship" promotion. We hope this will ring in the return of the Farmers Airship to the farm and some free wither protection with it. During that time, farmers will be able to "Like" the Farmers Insurance Facebook page again for a chance to ride the real Farmers Airship. But this time, Zynga plans on taking the company ship for a tour around its stable of games.

Soon after the FarmVille promotion returns, Farmers Insurance will find its way into CityVille, Cafe World and Mafia Wars over the next four months, though the company isn't ready just yet to spill all the beans. However, what we do know is big prizes are in store for Zynga gamers, not to mention that Farmers Insurance agents nationwide will jump in on the fun through their own Facebook pages.

"Millions of Farmers Airships were placed on FarmVille farms," Marc Zeitlin, Farmers Insurance VP of e-Business, said in a statement. "FarmVille players were exposed to the Farmers brand billions of times, raising our Facebook fan base by more than 100,000 in the first week of the promotion. It was one of the most successful things we've done from a branding perspective." Now do you see why Farmers and, um, us farmers are such a good fit? It's not just the name!

Cafe World Farmers Insurance promotion comes with Professor Burke Statue

If anything, the folks at Zynga definitely know how to setup a good cross-promotion. After Capital One recently set up shop in a slew of Zynga's games (and practically took over FarmVille), we now see a new promotion launching in Cafe World with another company: Farmers Insurance (remember, we were told that Farmers would be making an appearance in the game back in June). If you watch a lot of TV, you might recognize this promotion's mascot of sorts - Professor Burke - from recent Farmers Insurance commercials.

Now, Professor Burke has come to your cafe as a character and as a statue, plated in gold. This "Professor Burke Statue" has a limited time of effectiveness, but will "insure" your cafe, granting you spoil protection on all of the dishes you cook from now until October 2. Luckily, the statue is free, and it doesn't require any "building" to gain its effect. You can either simply place the statue from the in-game pop-up that appears, or you can head into the game's build menu manually to drag your free statue out and into your cafe.

If there's one thing to remember about this, it isn't that the statue itself comes with a time limit that can be turned on and off depending on when you place it in your cafe; rather, it's a case where you'll want to place it in your cafe as soon as possible as the overall countdown timer ticks down until October 2. If the Farmers Insurance promotion grows in Cafe World, we'll make sure to let you know.

Would you have liked the Professor Burke Statue to have another effect, rather than wither protection? Or, will you take advantage of this opportunity to cook some quickly cooking dishes while you're busy doing other things since they won't spoil? Sound off in the comments.