I'm confused.com, I'm bored.com and I'm offended.com. You only have to turn the telly on of an evening to know that Sir John Hegarty is right - so much of what our industry creates is really not very good at all. But everyone just loves that meerkat Aleksandr. And even more so in puppet form beating the crap out of a puppet in a suit with a salami.
As a creative, I'm of the opinion that if somebody is going to take the time to watch one of my commercials then I have a duty to inform, engage and entertain them. The ad does this by the bucket load.
I'm also still of the opinion that to give my clients the best value for money our work needs to have as long a shelf life as possible. Well, this has enormous re-watchability.
All of the other comparison site ads fail to engage, they don't entertain or inform. I'm sure they've got some research to say otherwise, but the simple fact is that however effective these ads are, they could be more so if they had a decent idea at their core. As my personal hero, Bill Bernbach, said: "properly practiced creativity can make one ad do the work of ten". Our friendly Meerkat is the only one that pokes his head above the dross.
They could have rested on their laurels, but this uses another mechanic to take the idea a step further. The Punch and Judy theme was a stroke of genius, with the suited puppet echoing Churchill's smug little bulldog: ‘How much can you save me on my car insurance?' This ad quite literally beats up all those other insurance adverts. This ad beats them out of the market. The ad is fearlessly creative and fantastically lampoons the rivals as Aleksandr laughs stage right.
The impact of social media has been phenomenal, showing the extraordinary cut-through the ad has had - countless sites and blogs have spread the word of Aleksandr. On Facebook Aleksandr has managed to gather over 500,000 fans who've added a current total of 916 fan photos and endless wall posts. He also has 21,807 followers on Twitter, which is more than Fern Britton has. In fact, he's been reported as having more influence on Twitter than Hilary Clinton or Boris Johnson. This is a fictional meerkat we're talking about. Even more shocking is that I'm actually interested in car insurance for the first time in my life.
Comparethemeerkat.com could quite easily have kept the formula as it is, but they've been very creative with how they've developed an already successful idea, employing a new mechanic to develop it. This is entertaining, relevant and memorable. Simples.