I try to stop myself, but can’t…. I keep singing ‘compare the meerkat.com’!!!!! Great ads create great catch phrases, that live on long after the ad campaigns are over. From the old days of ‘Don’t say brown, say Hovis’ to ‘Have a break, have a KitKat’ to the Budweiser ‘Waaasssup!’ But the comparethemarket.com ads have the extra component of the furry meerkat. He is even a furry toy sold in Harrods and has 600,000 Facebook fans. I can’t help thinking about the initial creative presentation to the client. Imagine a creative genius telling you to use a meerkat (a what?) to promote your insurance comparison website. It took a bold client. Can you imagine anyone in the hotel industry having the guts to go with something like that? I’m not sure I can. And perhaps that’s the reason why hotel ads have never been very memorable. Perhaps we just play too safe and stick to hotel lobbies & bedrooms (even if they do have Lenny Henry in them!)

Other posts of interest:

1. What’s in a job title?
2. Why are my Ebay purchases in the public domain?
3. Link between advertising spend and brand performance?