You may not know who Alexandr Orlov is, but he is one of the most successful figures in UK advertising. His followers on social network sites total around a million, his catchphrase has become part of the vernacular, and his 'autobiography' looks likely to outsell those of Tony Blair, Keith Richards and Nelson Mendella this Christmas.
Alexandr is the anthropomorphic meerkat that fronts the marketing campaign for insurance 'screen-scraper' website, Compare The Market. He is one of the most successful creations in British advertising, and the campaign he stars in has helped the price comparison site see a record boost in earnings of £60 million this year.
He is not the first character used to liven up a boring product, advertisers have been trying to capture the imagination over financial products ever since the days of the original 'Access' campaign. But Alexandr has
become one of the most popular advertising frontmen ever, and has even been made into a cuddly toy. This is a league reserved for such ad icons as Flat Eric, The Honey Monster and Monkey from ITV Digital / PG Tips. On the back of Orlov's success, rival companies have gone for character-based campaigns too. These include the equally annoying Go Compare tenor and Omid Djalilli's haggler.
Why exactly Orlov became such a runaway success is unsure, some have said that not all of his popularity may be welcome, as his catchphrase has by anti-Eastern European xenophobes. No ad creative would ever want their creation to be warped into the poster boy of bullies and bigots.
But whatever the reason for the meteoric rise of this celebrity mongoose, no one can deny that creating a character (however annoying) that has cross-generational appeal and can actually make something as dull as car insurance sell, is anything but Simples.