Television advert

The “compare the meerkats” advert has been really successful. From the original idea of having cute little meerkats as the characters, making the main one into a Russian aristocrat helped explain the accented “compare the markets” becoming “compare the meerkats”. From there on, the designers just played on his popularity and the joke that everyone signed up to. They had to create a parallel web site that really “compared the meerkats” but through which people can get referred on to “compare the markets” for cheap car insurance. The latest version of this series is on this site:

http://www.comparethemeerkat.com/my-movies


The first section of the advert is a close up of face shot of the main character Alexandr. As viewers we already know who he is and are attracted to the little face (he has been called the most popular character in Britain!). He starts with “Everyday millions of peoples mix up car insurance with meerkats”, so immediately gets to the point of the advert – comparing car insurance. They have our attention and it is focused on the end goal.

The second section of the advert pans out to Alexandr sinking into a Jacuzzi and being waited on by the subsidiary character Sergei. All the style of the furniture and surrounds reinforces the character and message that this is a Russian aristocrat at home. This is incongruous and both retains our attention while making us relax and smile. We are then thoroughly ready for the hitting home of the message in the final shots.

The third section takes us to the two boards and a bathrobed, damp Alekandr pointing us from “compare the meerkats” to the real goal of “compare the markets”. The company colours and branding (very simple and down to earth) come through on the boards, and stand out against the elaborate surroundings of Alekandr’s “home”.

This advert is very short but reinforces the brand name of Compare the Markets and the goal of obtaining cheap car insurance. It can be short as it is part of a series where the films were much longer and established the context. They can run with this as long as they are developing the joke and viewers are not getting bored with it.