I like this ad. Talking animals are funny. FACT.
And they've put a lot of love into creating the spoof site - Comparethemeerkat.com - where you really can search for a meerkat, by size, hobby and location. The organisation boasts that "We search from vast database of meerkats" and "Your meerkat will be displayed in less than one minute." It also has a list of FAQ ("Fairly Annoying Questions").
Meanwhile, Aleksandr the Meerkat already has over 3,000 friends on facebook. Blimey.
Thursday, January 08, 2009
It's All About The Meerkats
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52 comments:
YES something actually good
Kicks arse over that Virgin rubbish. And done by VCCP! Amazing.
This seems like an idea you have on every brief, the one that seems so mental you just say to make your partner laugh, or the creative director.
Only the client bought it this time.
It's not an amazing ad but it's quite entertaining, which puts it in the top 10 of ads about at the moment I guess.
Why does he sound russian when meerkats are found mainly in Africa?
It's alright yeah, but I can't believe anyone would actually join a Facebook group. Must be company employees surely?
Now, you're talking,
I love this and it's as simple as that.
Fuck reasons, sexism, blah blah blah.
I love it.
Finally meerkats are standing up for themselves.
I love it, it's a brilliant idea. Well done VCCP.
The ad is ok, but I really like the site. As with so many things, it's the attention to detail that makes it.
Funny all round. Best Meerkat based ad since http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=ekSNgnQZXMI
really nice idea. but maybe could have been executed a little more amusingly. will probably get better as it goes on though. Liked the Virgin ad too, for different reasons.
Best ad of the past couple of months. Memorable and funny for all audiences. Only just realised that they did a bloody website for it.
I like the ad.
The website is nice.
And meerkats are awesome.
But isn't it about time an agency did something digital that was different from just another a mock website or frivolous bit of fun?
Something like Nike+.
Something useful, that's also good for the brand.
Please put me straight if there have been lots of others that I've missed.
You keep posting rubbish, when BBH is producing gems like this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Zjg9h8BQJs
This is roughly a hundred times fresher than the Matrix crap by DDB.
Agree with Anonymous 11:11.
Just goes to show that you still have to present the ideas that you really really would like to make, instead of just killing if off 'cause the client probably wont go for it'.
Well done VCCP!
catch yerselves on.
'compare the meerkat'? get out of the pool. that's a bona fide groaner, right there.
and I reckon it lacks legs.
Strong campaign. Agree with Anon 11:11 – and that's partly why I like it! And if the Facebook group is employees only, then VCCP can put a tick next to "internal audiences" on the brief. Good work!
This is awesome. It's funny, it's original, and, in a market that's (a) crowded with a million toss-awful offerings and (b) crowded with a million toss-awful adverts, it's genuinely memorable.
Heavens - an ad that's funny and effective. We'll be getting well thought-through, user-friendly, amusing, useful websites next. Oh.
Top work, VCCP - not something I often hear myself saying.
It's not that bloody good. What does it say about standards when someone just sticks a talking frickin' animal on an ad (how many thousands of ads have featured a talking animal - hardly creative leap of the year) and everyone's falling over themselves to congratulate it. 8 out of 10 for production, 1 out of 10 for the concept.
The Twitter feed is bloody funny!
http://twitter.com/Aleksandr_Orlov
At last a FUN AD that isn't an art director wanking into a sock.
It's not a film.
It's an ad.
Yay! For whoever made it
It's like 11:11 said... It's the script you write but know the CD will never go with. You have a laugh about it but that's as far as it gets. Normally.
I'm glad this time it got through. It's funny. And holy shit it's a million times better than what they were doing before...
11: 12 - I puzzled this over as well and I think it's just cos if a Russian person says "market" it sounds like "meerkat"
in time of gloom in the financial sector it's really great to have a good honest bit of fun.
It stands out a million miles against all the rubbish comparison sites that I can't remember the names of.
well done client
i bet you it works its fucking socks off, too.
I'm glad one of these comparison sites finally got an ad like this out.
I worked on one for a few months last year and presented loads of ideas to client. But unfortunately they wouldn't do anything creative as they viewed it as a risk. (Despite wanting to stand out from the rest of those sites etc etc).
I hope our client is now kicking themselves realising they missed the boat. Fools.
Good ad.
Big tings are most definitely gwanin' at VCCP!
Love this.
This is what the Diet Coke Tortoise was supposed to be like.
Integral...
Isn't a comparison site useful?
Anon 2.25pm.
I meant the fakey Meerkat one.
Of course comparison sites are useful. Although I'm still waiting for a HowFuckedRU one to appear so I can see just how much value my house has lost since I moved in last Feb.
I've even created a little hand gesture for it, a la Phones4U.
It's good, but it's no Rainham Sheds.
Money Supermeercat must be kicking themselves.
very funny and hard working too. looks like darren bailes has brought some off the old itv digital monkey magic with him from mother. cant wait for the next one.
This ad is a crock of poo, it's as bad as Rocky the biscuit eating panda from mother. Highly irritating.
it's good.
hats off to the client for realising that above all you must grab attention and be memorable.
could have told us loads of logical reasons to use the site but, but goes to show that emotional reasons like a bit of whit and entertainment go a lot further in making you remember and choose a brand.
good stuff.
It's okay, but I prefer Dave Trott.
Scamp, I reckon you've become the Heat magazine equivalent in the ad-industry-blog world. Bit superficial in both content and readership, though hard to resist flicking through if it's in the immediate vicinity.
Very true, HH. If you have any photos of creative directors with cellulite, or looking excessively thin or in embarrassing outfits, please send them to me.
It's good that VCCP briefed the entire agency to get on scamp and post before anyone really had a chance to comment. "If we get 40 posts no one reads further than that"
The ad is okay. Not bad. Okay. Meerkats talking and animals has been done. Play on company names has been done too. So I guess it will win heaps of awards in the price comparison category. And so it should.
So it's been done before.
So what?
It will be done again too.
Maybe better, maybe worse.
It
has
all
been
done
before.
Not just ads, but films, music, books, buildings.
EVERYTHING!
@11:12
Fairly sure they are just borrowing accent equity from some of that sweet Borat ex-Soviet bloc country broken English stereotype comedy language.
Misheard financial brand name sounds like animal name, hilarity ensues?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eyx8yYnlwZM&feature=PlayList&p=38D59FA659C9652D&index=8
the guy doing the voice sounds like Borat. Guys, go compare - 'I learn my english from cassette...tape...'
Talking animals are not funny. You all must be in your late 30's.
LCC student.
Virign ad: your milkshake has been drunk. By a meerkat.
as with most recessions there seems to be a return to the crafts of branding and selling shit to people.
youtube has turned us into a generation of broadcasters.
i'm looking forward to thinking around the problems of small budgets, shifting product and doing it all with an eye on detail and craft.
armadillo's.
next year trotty will be d&ad president and we'll finally see some advertising get in the book.
That unboxed Audi ad is a similar idea to the Indian guy building his own Peugeot-
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=WR4XvsNenk8
I much prefer the Peugeot ad. Why? Because it's funny, human, engaging. The other one is yet another cold, clinical, 'clever' stop-motion animation cog/balls/orange/a million others.
I hope Meerkat is a move away from the latter, we've done them to death people.
His Facebook group is cute!
http://snipurl.com/9spwn
Have a look at the comments that people have left for Aleksandr Orlov and the meerkat photos uploaded
the ad is nice but the website is just sooo ham-handed. you know, this isn't comparethemarket.com. it's got the same colors but really, it isn't comparethemarket.com. don't you want to go to comparethemarket.com? hey, okay. just sayin' this isn't comparethemarket.com even though it looks so much like comparethemarket.com.
seriously, they killed the joke.
Is this a parody of the ITV Digital Monkey campaign from a few years ago... or just a lame attempt at copying the same advertising model without bothering about including an idea?
I rather like it, I have to say. I can see the brief is showing a wee bit, ie: people have a problem remembering the market bit of comparethemarket.com but I can't see anyone outside Soho worrying about that, and I think the way they've tackled it is a stroke of genius.
Ignore the [comparison] with ITV Monkey, jealousy will do that to you. And I remember a lot of people compared Monkey and Flat Eric when it first came out.
I absolutely love this ad!
After I first saw it I couldn't resist going online to see if comparethemeerkat.com really existed.
Everyone loves and remembers a meerkat!
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=6D9St_Bwia0
Meerkat ads rule.
The question is - what is a facebook friend worth to comparethemarket?
i LOVE him. i want to stroke his wee head til he falls asleep. i want to give him a cuddle. who cares if his accent is more russian than african - he's a suave wee guy so who cares. and he's got a wee housecoat......aaaaaaaaah. tell him i'll adopt him when he's too old to act.
aw bless.
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