Here’s an interesting little campaign by CompareTheMarket. These guys seem to be trying out a little social media, viral stuff! The main premise is that a Russian meerkat named Aleksandr Orlov, stick with me, has somehow managed to get himself into a predicament with CompareTheMarket due to his similarly named site; CompareTheMeerkat.com, a dating site for meerkats! What they were smoking when they thought up this crazy scheme I do not know but one thing’s for sure. It sounds crazy but it just might work. Here’s the advert:
Not a lot of large on-line businesses have success with social media marketing, mainly due to the bitter taste they leave in the mouth of the average social media user. But with a scheme this wacky and plenty of TV coverage CompareTheMarket will probably do very well out of it! I’m writing about it now aren’t I?!
I’ve checked out the CompareTheMeerkat site from an SEO point of view and it’s linked like mad back to the main CompareTheMarket site so with all the viral linking the hoax site is sure to generate plenty of PR through anchor text with the word compare in. This is bound to have a knock-on effect!
The marketing team behind the campaign have also created a FaceBook and Twitter account for Aleksandr Orlov the Russian meerkat. The FaceBook account has so far massed 138,327 fans and no doubt it’s still growing!
One other aspect which now seems to be occurring, and what is a master stroke in my opinion is the Google result when you search for comparethemeerkat – a nice suggestion of your intended destination! It’s a shame it doesn’t do it when you search with spaces but there you go! EDIT: It seems to be a little erratic and doesnt always give you a suggestion!
So, has the cost been worth it to CompareTheMarket? Well the Alexa rankings would suggest so:
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A fantastic read….very literate and informative. Many thanks….where is your RSS button ?
I strongly recommend that you turn the No Follow off in your comment section.
I’ll watch Google Webmaster Tools, and if the links don’t show up after a couple of weeks — I won’t go back to that blog again.
Another suggestion: you should have a Top Commentator widget installed.
Do Follow and Top Commentator will ensure that you have a successful blog with lots of readers!
I really enjoyed reading all the comments about the article around Compare the Meerkat but nobody seemed to overtly mention that the campaign was simply created for TV, then transcribed online due to the success and was built soley for brand awareness. Of course leads were required but the awareness on Compare the Market was the main brief. So did it work? Someone mentioned loads of Twitter followers and also Facebook fans but did this actually turn into chatter and therefore sales.
The answer is yes! So the campaign is brilliant. I have written a case study around the campaign with some good measurements within if anyone is interested in taking a look at the true halo effect Compare the Meerkat had on CompareTheMarket.com
http://www.graydudek.co.uk/2009/10/compare-the-meerkat-market-case-study/