Comparethemarket.com’s Aleksandr Orlov a success
Comparethemarket.com’ advertising meerkat called Aleksandr Orlov, has 555,000 Facebook fans and 25,000 Twitter followers and has caused rivals to rethink advertising campaigns, the Times reports
MoneySupermarket.com plans to “review” its advertising campaign, featuring Peter Jones, the Dragons’ Den entrepreneur, launched in June. The company insists that the move is not directly related to the meerkat character
Admiral, owner of Confused.com, has blamed the meerkat for a drop in its online business when it revealed a 30% drop in Confused.com’s operating profits to £11m.
Meerkat’s success
Orlov was created by VCCP, an advertising agency owned by Lord Bell’s Chime Communications and has increased traffic to the Comparethemarket.com website by 83% since January.
According to market share research by Hitwise between January and August this year:
- Comparehemarket.com rose by 76%
- MoneySupermarket.com lost 25.2%
- Confused.com dropped 5%
- GoCompare.com fell 31.8%.
Orlov’svoice is supplied by Simon Greenall, who played Alan Partridge’s friend, Michael, in I’m Alan Partridge.
