There’s a new face in the world of price comparison site marketing, but how will Gio Compario compare to Aleksandr Orlov, founder of Compare the Meerkat?
If you haven’t yet encountered Gio Compario then the chances are you will soon – he’s Go Compare’s answer to Compare the meerkat:
The world of price comparison websites is a competitive one and the arrival of the Compare the Meerkat campaign undoubtedly rocked it – as one of the smaller brands took a sudden huge bite of market share and reached the top four.
So, can Gio work the meerkat magic on Go Compare? The elements are all there – he has his own microsite, you can ‘become a fan‘ on Facebook (and at time or writing, there are 1,500 or so fans).
There are puns (“he’s only a tenor”), there is a catchy tune and there is a solid marketing campaign even behind the marketing campaign (“Who is Gio?” has been the teaser campaign, if you haven’t seen it).
Despite this, I don’t see Gio having the same success – or even a fraction of the success of that meerkat.
Aleksandr has been around much longer, it’s true, but even so – it will take a great deal of success for Gio to beat the meerkat. At the time of writing, the rodent (are meerkats rodents?) has 541,457 fans and a campaign to have ‘simples’ added to the dictionary.
His Facebook is a masterstroke in building an affectionate brand – including status updates such as: “Congratulations Usain Bolt. How can world’s fastest man also have world’s fastest name? Is like me being called Aleksandr Handsome Success.”
Gio might have worked pre-meerkat, but now I expect he will be seen as a second-rate attempt to capture the success of the Compare the Meerkat campaign.
So how do you create a successful marketing campaign that captures the imagination of your target audience, adds new phrases to our language and sparks an unexpected spike in zoo visitor numbers (as people go to, well, compare meekats…)?
To be honest, if there was a simple answer to that and I knew it, I’d be sunning myself on a beach right now with Aleksandr’s creator. But here are a few of the things Compare the Market’s marketers did oh so very well.
Created a charming personality
Unlike Barry Scott or most other persona-driven campaigns, we love Aleksandr, he’s charming.
The campaign doesn’t rely on the jingle getting stuck in your head or the ad itself being so ridiculous, you discuss it with your friends.
Instead, the character is so superbly crafted that you’ll enthuse to your friends about him and sing the jingle cheerfully.
Marketed offline and on
So often brilliant marketing campaigns are not supported online, but this was far from the case with the meerkat marketing, which was hugely successful.
Not search marketing success, it has to be said (Compare the Market apparently failed to bid for meerkat search terms, meaning other comparison sites did and effectively nabbed a fair amount of traffic).
However, the campaign had everything in place it needed to go viral: a microsite, a Facebook page, wallpaper to download, Aleksandr’s family history – the lot.
There was a tonne of content people enjoyed and wanted to share, so they did.
Returned to the brand
With a campaign as popular as the meerkats, there was always a danger that the advertising would outstrip the actual service being sold – and apparently there’s no money to be made comparing meerkats.
Aleksandr’s eagerness to remind visitors that ‘this ees not Compare the Market dot com’ means the brand being actually promoted is constantly called to your attention.
Developed the story
Compare the meerkat may be an excellent pun but the marketing team didn’t leave it at just that.
There has been ongoing development and expansion of the original idea, with new characters like Sergei being introduced and even a bloopers reel being released.
When people are engaged with a concept, they need to be stimulated by fresh material and will quickly recognise and despise anything that looks like a rehash.
I actually think GoCompare’s efforts actually damage their brand, its put me off as its in my opinion a really poor effort, Gio Compario ad comes on, I mentally switch off, he’s annoying.
Ref the Meerkat, I have to admit I think the marketing team will have their hands full coming up with creative ideas otherwise their audience will tire of Alexsandr.
Still I think the Meerkat marketing team nabbed the overall idea from Geico Insurance who have ran these types of ads for years:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MxR2FN6tEKg
Blatant rip-off of the Meerkat campaign structure, but if it works, it works ;)
This ad is even more pertinent as the Geico Gecko actually references “people trust advertising icons” – great!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=acCfnwTpdxU&feature=related
You mean they actually gave a name to this annoying character? As Darren has said, I’m sure this is going to do more harm than good to GoCompare’s brand.
There’s a common misconception about the PPC element of Compare the Meerkat’s launch – it was a response campaign to drive Car Insurance quotes and users typing in ‘meerkat’ would’ve been unlikely to be after car insurance.
How many people who searched for ‘meerkat’ took out a policy or even a quote with Go Compare? And how many clicked on the ad, cost Go Compare money, and then continued to search for the site they were actually after? PPC is considered as an acquisition channel even when there are branding implications, and campaigns like this require a complex balance of appearing where you ‘should’ appear, and appearing where it is effective to appear.
Imitation is flattery. Let’s face it, anything anyone now does with a character will be compared to Compare the Market. The concept was not originated by them but their execution and integration with social media was innovative.
Go Compare operates in an incredibly competitive market place where mindshare is essential – they have to do something to get attention. I found Aleksandr and the meerkat adverts so annoying I had to change channels – however, they were hugely popular and well executed. I had the same opinion of eSure’s use of Michael Winner (he was a friend of the owner!) – Mr Winner’s voice is enough to make me seek therapy. However, eSure’s marketing was very successful and drove a lot of enquiries both on and offline.
Will Gio Compario be successful? If the correlation between my apathy and marketing success holds, yes!
Will it harm Go Compare’s brand? I’m not so sure. It will be interesting to monitor the social space and see what conversations develop. I say good luck to Go Compare – it is a bold step albeit with a strong “me too” element.
thanks
james
Ah, but let’s not forget that the Meerkat is an unreconstituted racist!
its amazing what a splash such a small creature can make. I found this great article on the meerkat over here: onthebutton.wordpress.com/2009/08/28/compare-the-meerkat/
nah-meerkat’s based around a central idea. this guy’s just completely out of the blue.
I always find that an advert that one hates with a passion the very first time it is aired, as is the case with Gio Compario, can not be a good thing. The concept is cheap, the idea that viewers will be continually amused by repetition of this cacophonous onslaught is naive and frankly patronising. If I were in charge of Go Compare I would sue the advertising company and fire whoever was responsible for hiring them.
I’m not so sure that Gio Compario has the longevity that Aleksandr Orlov has, whilst they have Facebook and the like for building up some sort of character affection, it’s the TV ads that have the biggest impact and the way Go Compare have pitched their idea is an in your face (soon to be annoying/catchy) theme tune – I don’t think there’s anywhere to go with it from there. The meerkat idea will tire eventually, but it would appear to have a bit more TV life in it than go compare.
to the roddy williams dude. its called a difference in opinion. i know plenty of people (including moi) who are continually amused by that advert.
I was under the impression that the purpose of this forum was to air differences of opinion. I’m sorry if I got that wrong, but anyhoo….
Plenty of people? Really? Proper grown-up people? I haven’t come across any, so maybe it’s a matter of geography.
The Roddy Williams Dude
I noticed the other day that giocompario.com has been given a makeover! It was absolutely rubbish before. I don’t think it’s as good as comparethemeerkat.com though … simples!