Tuvalu is a beautiful Polynesian island nation located about halfway between Hawaii and Australia. Small and sparsely populated, its annual GDP is about the same as the amount that moneysupermarket.com spends on media per year (about $31m, according to the CIA and Taylor Nelson, respectively).
Add all the 'big four' insurance aggregators together, and you get a figure closer to the GDP of Morocco or Vietnam. All to make us remember their URL first, all to get their logo closest to the mouse fingers of the begrudging motorist.
Never in the history of human communication has so much been paid by so many for so little. Into this shrill category comes this, the second instalment of Moneysupermarket's campaign 'You're so Moneysupermarket'.
Will it be able to compete with the cuteness of those furry Russian mammals, the nerve-jangling repetitiveness of Gio Compario, or the sub-X Factor yodelling of Confused.com?
Things are all set up for this ad to stand out and then worm in. It has turned the daft-o-meter way up past 11.
What with the inter-primate sex, what with Sir David Attenborough recast as Dagenham Dave, what with him out-silverbacking Guy the Gorilla while jacked up on saved cash and discount bananas, what with the end-line so elegantly purloined from Swingers and all.
Are we not entertained? Damn right we are.
However, a kind of exhausted sadness remains, an over-stimulated, enervated sense of emptiness. For all the mind-boggling budgets, advertising in this category has nothing much to say.
This is a market that provides thin pickings for distinctive messages, positionings or brands. Beneath the jingles and the jungles, it feels like a battle between one server farm and the next. All thoughts of depth or meaning are forgotten in the unseemly rush to make us remember.
Yet at least this ad sides with the angels in attempting, as with 'Meerkat', to be both memorable and likeable. A mercy in a category where others take the Millwall strategy: 'No one likes us, we don't care.'
It is an idea with less innate insanity and depth than the meerkat. It therefore has to work harder in execution than the born-bonkers Aleksandr Orlov, but it potentially has more longevity. I struggle to see where Comparethemarket can go in its stark post-fluffy toy universe.
As for Moneysupermarket.com, it has sound, it has some simian fury, but like its competitors, it doesn't much care if it is signifying nothing.
Adwatch (October 12): Top 20 recall | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Latest | Oct-05 | Brand | Agency/ TV Buyer | Recall | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
rank | % | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
1 | (–) | Mother/ MediaCom |
45 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
2 | (–) | Autoglass | Tellyville/ Starcom |
43 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
3 | (–) | Sensodyne |
Grey London/ |
40 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
4 | (–) | Wickes | MWO/MEC | 39 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
5 | -3 | Wonga. com |
Albion London/ PHD |
37 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
6= | -4 | DFS | Uber/ MediaCom |
36 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
6= | (–) | British Gas |
CHI & Partners/ Carat |
36 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
8= | (–) | Ryvita | Grey London/ ZenithOptimedia |
35 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
8= | (–) | McDonald's | Leo Burnett/ OMD UK |
35 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
10 | (–) | Marks & Spencer |
RKCR Y&R/ Walker Media |
34 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
11= | (–) | Lloyds TSB |
RKCR Y&R/ MEC |
33 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
11= | (–) | Morrisons | DLKW Lowe/ MEC |
33 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
13= | -10 | Asda | Saatchi & Saatchi/ Carat |
29 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
13= | (–) | Vodafone | Bartle Bogle Hegarty /OMD UK |
29 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
15 | (–) | Febreze | Grey Düsseldorf/ Starcom |
26 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
16= | (–) | L'Oreal – Volume Million Lashes |
McCann Erickson/ ZenithOptimedia |
25 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
16= | (–) | Vanish Oxi Action |
Euro RSCG London/ ZenithOptimedia |
25 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
16= | (–) | TK Maxx | In-house/ Mindshare |
25 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
16= | (–) | Currys/ PC World |
M&C Saatchi/ Walker Media |
25 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
20 | (–) | Rachel's Organic |
HMDG/ ZenithOptimedia |
23 |