How did they do it?

The www.comparethemarket.com website launched the www.comparethemeerkat.com campaign. The first buzz was created with an advertisement which had the purpose of creating a popular brand, raise brand awareness via social media channels, and direct traffic to website of the campaign. The advertisement, which appeared on British TV, had as a star a funny Russian meerkat, Aleksandr Orlov. The funny advertisement, draw everyone’s attention on the website and soon interaction on all social media channels started. The number of views the video has reached was huge; the Facebook page gathered more than 710,000 fans (at current date, Feb 2010) and the Twitter account is now being followed by a high number of  people.

Attracted by the amusing and fictional character, Aleksandr Orlov, fans accepted to post a badge on their profiles once they became fans, this way all the friends of the  newly fan had the chance to see the news on their profile pages. The number of people reached by the message was huge and this was further demonstrated by the results that the campaign registered. The impact the character had over the fans was so big that they actually demanded that customs dolls and toys were made with the face of Aleksandr, and started to post customized photos with Mr. Orlov on the official page. The interaction on Facebook can be easily measured by considering the number of likes and comments every status of the character receives every time he posts an update.

Twitter lovers and users were not left behind because Aleksandr made sure to interact with its fans on Twitter too. With more than 34,000 followers (at current date, Feb 2010), Aleksandr tweets with his fans all day long. Twitter was not only used as a channel to promote sales or traffic during the campaign. The company continued to use it as a way to maintain a relationship with its clients, especially with Alexander’s fans. They also improved customer service, by offering real time consultancy via Twitter.

The impact of the campaign didn’t stop here. Reviews of the campaign were posted on other social media networks like Digg or StumbleUpon. Everyone wanted to get in touch with the funny voiced character.

Posted reviews state that the results of the campaign were far beyond expectation. In the first three days of the campaign 75% of the monthly quotes had been achieved and over 50% of the sites traffic in the first week was directed to www.comparethemarket.com. The number of quotes rose with 90% comparing with the previous year.

Conclusion

This campaign has proved to be the perfect example for a great mix between offline and online campaigns. The success of the campaign still spreads its echo even though it will soon be a year since the campaign was launched. Combining creativity with marketing goals, www.comparethemarket.com has managed to establish a more warm and friendly brand image, raise its sales and website traffic, find a popular figure to associate with its brand and use social media in a constructive and intelligent form.