Feb
2009
9
compare the meerkat campaign review by sylvia hales
what are you reviewing?
The current education and social awareness campaign by Compare the Meerkat.
where can people see this?
On the television box. And also www.comparethemeerkat.com. Careful though, don’t end-up mistakenly trawling through some boring old car insurance site like www.comparethemarket.com!
where was the first time you saw this?
On the television box. And what a relief that was too. We’d just got off sentry duty, a very bit tireds after all that looking out. What a comfort to know that these nightmarish online misdirections we’ve been having are a mere bagatelle, down to a simples misunderstanding. But, of course, we are a very altruistic breed. Maybe it is only naturals that a meerkat should make this clarifically clear for the good of meerkatkind.
overall opinion
Full marks to Compare the Market’s marketing team. They have latched onto something which Sir David Attenborough has known for years – meerkats are hilarious – and built an effective, entertaining, memorable and abiding campaign around it. I’d love to know the actual stats but, based on my own experience, I’m convinced they will have grabbed a high proportion of search comparison from their competitors.
Furthermore, I believe that they will retain it. Insurance renewal is, for most, an annual event. My own isn’t due again until November but I know that I’ll be far more inclined to remember, and use, that funny meerkat thing next time rather than that screamy hair-pulling confused piece of grate, however functional and efficient it was last time.
We raised an eyebrow at Aleksandr’s accent. Is that really best Afrikaans? Or has the Kalahari Desert been invaded by Russia? And then we worried, as the recent Sachsgate affair still reverberates and acts as a throwback to the 1980’s harassment of Manuel, that somebody would stop hugging their tree long enough to be very offended by the implications of highlighting an innocent creature’s less-than-perfect working knowledge of the English language. Still, it appears to have escaped the PC police and I believe that’s a good thing on this occasion.
exciting/interesting features
Having done the hard bit of getting you into it, the comparethemarket site is clean, clear, easy-to-navigate and quick. All very good but not markedly better, or worse, than any of the other car insurance comparison sites.
The comparethemeerkat site is quick, clever and very funny. God bless the developer who programmed the fifty thousand possible variations to match a knitting meerkat who supports Hove Albion and weighs less than twenty-five pounds. That’s the difference.
anything else to say?
It’s a long, long time, since I heard any advertising medium referred to in the pub, at the supermarket, during a dinner party, on the bus, at the garage....
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