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08.12.09
Metro meerkats spotted

Johnson banks’s creative director, Michael Johnson, is extensively quoted in today’s edition of London newspaper, Metro.

Discussing the 'Meerkat’ campaign developed for the price comparison site, Compare the Market, he had this to say:

"A great product or unique service makes advertising one of the easiest jobs ever– just tell the consumer what it does, why it’s great, then go home, job done. So the first iPod and first iPhone made advertising a doddle because the product WAS the ad.
 
But in markets where products seem dull and undifferentiated? Much, much trickier. A classic example is ‘market comparison’ sites - acres of green, blue and white cyberspace stuffed with endless jolly couples willing you to fritter endless unjolly hours shaving 3 quid off your car insurance.
 
Then along came a mad Russian meerkat called Aleksandr. And an annoyed and slightly victimised one at that, cross that you wanted to compare markets, not meerkats. With one slightly barmy joke (or bad pun, or slice of genius, you decide), Compare the Market has become a brand.
 
Briefed to create a campaign that linked both the words ‘compare’ and ‘market’ and somehow instill genuine love and affection, VCCP (the agency) has created a classic.
 
Have we found our turn of the decade Smash Martians or Hofmeister bear? Perhaps. Launched only last Boxing Day, Aleksandr already seems part of the zeitgeist. Enough people enjoy the joke to visit the real site and doing some actual comparing, the site is has 400% more visitors than a year ago, and our velvet-jacketed friend joins that list of characters created to sell ‘stuff’ that becomes more memorable than the stuff itself."

If you’re wondering what this is all about, or reading from abroad, go here.

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