Infinite Path

The success of Comparethemarket’s catchy meerkat advert is now starting to show online. Social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter are currently home to fan pages and accounts hosted by the famous meerkat.

The main Comparethemarket website has been inundated with traffic since the clever TV ad campaign was launched in January. The non-commercial sister site, Comparethemeerkat.com, is also seeing high traffic volumes through both the TV ad and social activity online.

The most interesting element of the meerkat online activity is that it really isn’t heavily commercial. The meerkat is there for humour, not to push the service from Comparethemarket.

People like the character and view it affectionately. They want to interact with the character and while they associate it with the brand, they view it as a separate entity and are probably quite enlightened by the fact that they are not sold to at every given opportunity; especially considering that the product is insurance.

The character – and the marketing campaign that surrounds it – is entirely pointless really. It is fun above all else. Obviously this has a positive effect on sales and revenue for the company, but unlike many marketing and advertising initiatives, it is heavily focused around humour and designed to make people laugh.

The Meerkat’s effective use of social media channel marketing is very interesting. Social media marketing clearly does work but it seems that the way to make it work quickly is to use a fun character or feature which draws people to the service in a subtle manner.