Our challenge was to differentiate price-comparison website comparethemarket.com from their competitors by bringing to life their TV creative, comparethemeerkat.com.

We set out to make the star of their ads, billionaire Russian Meerkat Aleksandr Orlov, famous, to increase consumer engagement and give the brand personality in a wider media arena.

Treating Aleksandr as a celebrity in his own right, we implemented a number of creative PR tactics, each designed to drive talkability and delight consumers, encouraging them to interact with the brand online.

All activity was carefully managed to avoid consumer and media fatigue, by executing surprising media 'firsts'.Our results included over 60 national media hits within the first 6 months (counting 3 front-pages) and 33:1 return-on-investment.Aleksandr now has over 36,000 Twitter followers, making him more influential than Boris Johnson and Hilary Clinton, and over 709,000 Facebook fans, giving him the most popular UK branded fan-page. His catchphrase “Simples” is included in the Oxford English Dictionary, and was voted 'word of the year 2009' by Oxford University Press.The brand has gone from 4th to 1st in spontaneous awareness rankings and is now first in consideration rankings. Its market share has tripled over the past year.

1. Created stand-out via surprising content and media firsts:• The first fictional brand character interview in Hello with an "At Home" double-page-spread with Aleksandr.• Sun journalist Charlotte Martin was given the world's first "face-to-face" interview with Aleksandr – a 'Sun world exclusive' hosted on Sunonline.• Campaigned to get his catchphrase "Simples!" into the Oxford English Dictionary.2. Building love for Aleksandr: • Produced official Aleksandr Orlov toys to go on sale exclusively at Harrods, with profits going to London Zoo.• Created a monthly podcast chat-show Meerchat, interviewing world famous celebrity stars of Baywatch and Britain’s Got Talent, David Hasselhoff and Piers Morgan.3. Driving engagement via social media networks:• Released exclusive stills and offered fans exclusive content, e.g. via the first premier of an advert on Facebook.• Seeded Bloopers (which secured a front page of Metro) to build on TV copy and drive content sharing.

- 63 national media hits within 6 months.- The successful Facebook petition to get "Simples!" into the dictionary was supported by 10,000+ people.- The Hello "At Home With Aleksandr" drove 8,000+ insurance quotes within a day.- The Meerchat received 200,000+ downloads, reaching No.2 in the iTunes chart.

- The pre-stock of toys at Harrods sold-out within a day with some auctioned for charity for £1,000+ each. The Sun’s competition to win 50 toys received 30,000+ entries making it their biggest ever toy competition .- Website traffic increased 400% increasing quote requests by 80%, and decreasing cost per acquisition by 73%.- Mark Vile, Marketing Director at comparethemarket.com has said, "PR has added a level of fame, love and engagement to the brand that otherwise might not have been achieved. We’re able to attribute an increase in direct quote volume as a result of the PR – the best measure of a successful campaign."