Let’s be honest, anyone would have to love to be a VCCP UK creative working on comparethemarket.com. It’s a famous campaign – world famous. VCCP UK’s Safari ad has just launched in Australia. It has survived the slings and arrows of both competitors and time. People love its stories. Its brief includes making ads that are wild and fun.
The meerkats newest ad, for Meerkat Movies (an incentive program that offers 2 for 1 cinema takets for using comparthemarkat.com), is a Hollywood extravaganza – a singing, dancing spot that references eight of the world’s most iconic movies – with Aleksandr and Sergei added – and whose song reimagines Barbara Streisand’s Rain On My Parade.
Aleksandr and Sergei are supported by more than 500 extras in the 60 second TVC that will run until the end of the year as well as on YouTube, Facebook, Spotify and Instagram. It was shot on location in Cape Town (where Tomb Raider, Black Sails and Eye in the Sky were also filmed). Its Parisian choreographer, Oliver Casamayou, has worked with Kylie Minogue, Will Young and Cirque Du Soleil. Its wardrobe was curated by Moira Meyer, who has worked on films such as Blood Diamond, Lord of War and The Hurt Locker. Key pieces of costume include Brad Pitt’s uniform from Fury, and Cate Blanchett’s dress from Elizabeth.
Mark Vile, chief marketing officer at comparethemarket.com, commented, “We really wanted to shout about the fact that Meerkat Movies is available all year, and what better way than making a mini movie of our own? Every detail has been thought through, to give the advert the look and feel of a major motion picture.
“We’ve used some of the most iconic film imagery of all time to give consumers a flavour of the range of films they can go and see using their annual Meerkat Movies membership.”
This new campaign kicked off with a 60 second radio advert, the first time the brand has used one for a launch. The ad is running on Global Radio Network, which includes Capital FM, Radio X, LBC, Smooth Radio, and ran also during the flagship network chart shows on Sunday May 13.
Meerkat Movies has surpassed three million app downloads in its three years, helping twenty million people go to the cinema, and saving the UK £74,200,000 (AU$132,977,038) in cinema tickets. This milestone was reached eight months earlier than its predecessor, Orange Wednesdays.
The film was created by VCCP creative directors, Matt Lloyd and Greg Milbourne, and ex-VCCP CD, Jay Fretwell (now founding partner and ECD of PR Agency, Yonnoy). It was directed by Dave Scanlon and produced by Anna Cunnington and Patrick Duguid at Passion Pictures. The campaign media plan was designed and led by Wavemaker.
Musical parodies are apparently a thing with comparison sites. Mother London’s last Epic Strut has been racking up views (and mostly positive, albeit seriously polarised, opinions) since March.
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