Car Insurance is really dull.But it is really really competitive. A search on Google for ‘car insurance comparisons’ produces an astonishing 78,000,000 (78 million) results.
Unsurprisingly brands in this market rely heavily on TV and Press advertising to help create an awareness in the hope that you’ll consider them when your annual obligation to think about this lowest of low interest categories comes around.
Equally unsurprisingly one of the hardest groups to appeal to in this market are young adults, and it’s against this background that ‘comparethemarket.com’ has turned to the natural world for inspiration.
It comes in the form of Aleksandr the meerkat who, as you would expect, is a cheeky chappy with a Ruskie accent and a vocabulary all of his own whose charm has brought the unlikely world of car insurance to a vast new audience- albeit indirectly.
In the finest traditions of fully integrated marketing campaigns Aleksandr’s TV ads are complimented by his own website ‘comparethemeerkat.com’ which is not to be confused with ‘comparethemarket.com’ which is of course where the conceit comes from in the first place.
Visitors to the site can indeed compare meerkats by sizes, hobbies and locations and the chosen one can even be sent to friends.
This is known as ‘viral marketing’ and contributes hugely to the cult character that Aleksandr has become amongst a much younger audience than would normally pay any heed to car insurance comparison sites.
He receives great reviews on Youtube, his Facebook profile page has over 250,000 friends and he currently has in excess of 2000 followers on Twitter .... I know I’m one.
And it’s not the first time that the humble meerkat has come to the marketers assistance.
Ultra Fresh Clorets recently turned to a mob of meerkats to extol its breath freshening virtues while Telecom New Zealand used a lonely single male to encourage use of its cheap rate direct dial service.
Both advertisements showed the enduring appeal of the meerkat marketing but neither gets close to Aleksandr and his ability to bring a new and younger audience to the brand he represents.
And if further proof were necessary that this the meerkat that can you need look no further than the Red Nose Day comic relief sketch broadcast on the Beeb on Friday 13th which saw Aleksandr in the company of other such cult giants as The Honey Monster and Bertie Bassett.
It just doesn’t get better than that or, as Aleksandr himself would say...’simples’.
