Compare The Market introduces the meerkat
Compare The Market is to introduce its brand spokesman Aleksandr Orlov to the Australian market this weekend.
The creative from VCCP is a reworking of a successful campaign created by the agency in the UK featuring a Russian meerkat called Aleksandr Orlov who owns a “compare the meerkat” website .
The campaign has been running in the UK for four years where the comparison website took a sizeable share of the market. Recent weeks have seen reports that the campaign is to be dropped to avoid the public becoming bored of the meerkat.
The Australian ad has not yet been released although it is based on the original UK one.
VCCP officially launched comparethemarket.com.au into Australia earlier this month.
Tim Burrowes founded Mumbrella in 2008. He worked on Mumbrella until 2021. At various points he was editor, content director and editor-at-large.
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Prepare to suffer over-use of the phrase ‘simples’ in an office near you.
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I am not surprised they are launching this campaign in Australia. Having seen several ‘episodes’ in the meerkat ‘series’, I am sure it will become popular. Alexander achieved such a strong following that they created soft toy meerkats dressed as Alexander to give to people who signed up for insurance via compare the market, and people in pubs and other places would quote from the adverts. That is some campaign! Watch out Australia. 🙂
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I live in the UK and see these ads all the time – I love this meerkat!
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It is a great campaign indeed – one that has had really high unprompted recall amongst the UK market for awhile (though don’t ask me to back up that quote). When I first moved to the UK I was all ‘pfft who would sign up to an insurance mob just to get a free meerkat toy’. Fast forward to 3 months later when we finally got around to getting home insurance and I was all ‘first meerkat toy!’
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OH PLEASE NO. I love the ads, but keep them in the UK! I’ve been obsessed with meerkats long before those adverts, and I will go mental if people start screaming “simples” at me and the meerkats I work with (not to mention the competition over meerkat merchandise, no thanks!) Why can’t they pick a different animal, like a lesser known meerkat relative? Or an endangered species? They deserve some attention too..
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This is perfect timing for Aus. Optus has moved on from animals, their greatest branding device, in favour of pixels (oh dear). The meerkats mean our TV screens can once again be filled with wonderful creatures.
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@ Someone. They can’t pick any animal. Think about it. What other animal sounds like ‘market’…!!
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Why hasn’t a Dvd of the ads been made.They make people feel good.They could be put on sale to the General Public not just customer.Simples!
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