Aleksandr boosts Comparethemarket.com

by Sam Fish, mediaweek.co.uk 02-Jun-09, 07:30

Challenge - Using the new creative featuring the character Aleksandr the Meerkat, Zed needed to boost quotes and increase brand awareness by driving users to the Comparethemarket site.

Client
Comparethemarket.com
Agency
Zed Media
Planner
Sam Fish

Strategy
We identified that online had tradition-ally been underinvested in by car insur-ance advertisers. Comparethemarket wanted to build a rapport with the public that would have a beneficial effect on brand metrics. Our approach used research that showed us that the two core social media channels for the target audience were YouTube and Facebook. We also used the fast-growing social platform of the moment, Twitter. Using social media, this allowed us to increase brand awareness and create a platform for consistent dialogue.

Activity
To maximise our activity, we linked from popular sites such as Facebook, YouTube and Twitter to Comparethemeerkat.com in a simple, yet effective, way of improving the search ranking of the new site. This ensured that it was high in natural search rankings. Twitter, by its very nature, also encourages a lot of links, with many users sharing the link to this popular new site. Having a presence on Twitter meant that a conversation developed rather than remaining a simple "look at this" sharing concept. The popular buzz around this allowed Aleksandr to become a social media star.

Results
The campaign has already been a great success and is still running. Aleksandr's Facebook page has generated more than 400,000 fans to date, ranking the page around the 974th most-popular page in the world, with more than 700,000 page views and more than 5,000 wall posts. Users have also uploaded more than 800 photos and created 600 discussion topics, and are fully engaging with Aleksandr and the Comparethemeerkat brand. On Twitter, he's being followed by 10,000 users. Multiple industry and personal blogs have highlighted the campaign and the benefits of its comprehensive approach, in particular how it will help brand awareness and search engine optimisation.

Sam Fish, Planning manager, Zed Media