You suspected it, and it’s true. In this video from Facebook’s August Developer Garage event, ad agency VCCP’s digital head Buster Dover reveals the secret behind one of the year’s most popular social marketing campaigns: “It was a couple of our creatives who were drunk in a pub and decided that Compare The Market sounded quite similar to Compare The Meerkat.” And that’s how you devise a modern ad campaign – simples…
The campaign’s protagonist Aleksandr is available to follow via Facebook and Twitter, “fans” can share “viral” videos and so on – it’s a classic social ad buy, and one pinched by Ask Jeeves. But there was loftier inspiration, Dover claims: “This is absolutely nicked from the Obama campaign … It’s about having one core idea and going out to as many platforms as possible.”
But nothing revolutionary there – it’s been done before. One marketer for a rival online insurance comparison service told me Compare The Meerkat may be well loved, but may not be driving conversions to actual custom.
Watch Dover’s full presentation here.
Update: Times Online reports, citing Hitwise stats, that the site increased its market share of UK insurance comparison site visits by 76 percent since the campaign was launched in December. At the same time MoneySupermarket.com lost 25.2 percent of visits, Confused.com dropped five percent and GoCompare lost 31.8 percent. Traffic, however, does not always translate into sales.
Update: Buster Dover contacted me to point out that VCCP staff weren’t literally drunk during the brainstorming – indeed, in the history of creative agencies, many an advertising concept has emerged over a pint.