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WHEN IT ALL GOES RIGHT, STAY WITH IT
All organisations hope that they can capture people’s attention in a good way with their brand identity. To remember the brand name, the catchphrase, for sales to double in a year, and to generate a second profitable business from the merchandise is almost unheard of. But that’s what happened to Compare The Market.
The idea Compare the Market’s meerkats advertising is a great example. Meerkats with Russian accents, getting annoyed at people for accidentally visiting their website comparethemeerkat.com when they are really looking for cheap car insurance. The catchphrase, “simples”, pronounced with frustration and in a Russian accent, has made it straight into the English language. It is officially allowed in Scrabble – despite an argument in one of the ads when Sergei didn’t want Aleksandr to use it – as it’s the plural of simple, a noun meaning a herbal remedy. The agency VCCP created Aleksandr the Russian meerkat, which was then turned into a brilliantly lifelike CGI model by Passion Pictures. You can buy the Aleksandr soft toy and his “autobiography” A Simples Life. The original ads have been followed up with War and Peace style epics about how meerkats from Africa ended up in Russia. There are ads filmed in the fictional village of Meerkova. The spoof website comparethemeerkat.com gets millions of visitors But the important
92 • 100 GREAT BRANDING IDEAS
100 Great Branding Ideas 14dec.indd 92
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