- Product/Brand - Comparethemarket.com
- Spot - Meerkat Street Party
- Song Title - Let Me Go
- Composer - Barlow, Kennedy, Hillebrand
- Publisher - Sony/ATV EMI Music
- Artist - Gary Barlow
- Record Company - Universal - Polydor
- Ad Agency - VCCP
- Creative - Darren Bailes, Matt Lloyd, Matt Hynds, Liam Wilson, Javier Romartinex
- Film Company - Passion Pictures
- Film Director - Darren Walsh
- Air Date - November 24 2013
Where were you the night that Gary Barlow met the Meerkats? This is a question which millions of Britons young and old will be able to answer without a hint of hesitation. On the sofa in front of my TV set. Simples!
Of course, time alone will tell whether the 90 second comparethemarket.com spot really was a landmark in the history of UK TV advertising – as the presumptuous Aleksandr Orlov might try to claim.
But it’s on record that the Twitter storm greeting the ad, which debuted in the middle of ITV’s The X Factor on November 24, substantially out trended One Direction’s new release, Iran’s nuclear power negotiations and England’s Ashes debacle.
All of which suggests that the prestigious pairing of Take That star and the nation’s favourite furry family might just have set a new standard in the roles pop stars can expect to play – not to mention the rules they can expect to play by – in TV commercials of the future.
The ad was written by VCCP creative Javier Romartinex to celebrate the first anniversary of a three year, £30 million sponsorship deal between Coronation Street and the market-leading price comparison site. The inking of that pact, avid adbreak watchers will recall, was itself commemorated by film of the Meerkats band performing a gypsy version of the veteran soap’s time-honoured theme tune.
More musical notes were struck in the Summer when comedian Robert Webb joined Aleksandr at the piano for an alfresco rendition of Paul McCartney and Stevie Wonder’s 1982 chart-topper Ebony And Ivory.
Rumours that something altogether more significant than both was on the way finally became a reality with a short teaser which ran during the second week of November. Here Gary Barlow was seen accosted in the street by Aleksandr and Sergei who then cajoled him into appearing at a big birthday party on the Coronation Street set.
"Aleksandr approached me with an unusual request,” he tweeted. “Watch this space to see happens."
In the real world however, things were ever so slightly different. It was Universal’s Polydor marketing team who, back in May, first thought of the possibility of Gary Barlow partnering the adworld’s most famous Russian émigrés as part of the marketing campaign around his forthcoming solo album Since I Saw You Last, his first for 14 years.
“We approached ITV and comparethemarket.com with the idea of bringing the three parties together to celebrate the existing partnership between comparethemarket.com and ITV’s Coronation Street and tying it in to the release of Gary Barlow’s new album," says Chris Elrin, Commercial Director, Polydor Records.
"Three icons of British culture together in one place, what’s not to love?!”
According to Mark Vile, Marketing Director at comparethemarket.com, it was almost a happy accident waiting to happen.
“We wanted to celebrate the anniversary with a big bang,” he says. “It was fantastic for us to have Gary Barlow on board because he is a self confessed fan of both the Meerkats and Coronation Street. So it was a perfect fit.”
Corrie’s crowd were equally enthusiastic.
“We wanted a unique, innovative way to celebrate this important milestone and were thrilled when Gary agreed to be part of the fun,” says ITV’s Group Commercial Director, Simon Daglish. “In the best TV tradition, comparethemarket.com knows how to capture the imagination and entertain viewers and this new collaboration delivers in spades.”
But saying it is one thing. Making it happen is quite another and Barlow must be commended for ignoring the old showbiz adage about never appearing with children or animals. Especially if they’re computer-generated with an alarming habit of answering back even when they’re not actually there!
Providing the X Factor judge with the kind of advice he usually gives out to the talent show’s wannabe contestants was Passion Pictures director Darren Walsh, who has brought years of award winning experience in animation to every one of the thirty plus Meerkat ads which have been made since the series began in 2009. Under Walsh's watchful eye Barlow was filmed ‘on location’ in Weatherfield over the course of a long weekend in early summer.
And for a man who is clearly not an actor, Barlow makes a pretty mean fist of what must surely have been a nerve-wracking experience.
But did it really get the job done?
The clients are obviously well happy with the finished ad, which raises some genuine chuckles and stands up to repeated viewing. Our Gary’s hair didn’t catch fire or anything and his legions of fans will not have been in the least bit disappointed by the gusto he put into his performance – even if he was ultimately upstaged by Sergei playing guitar Brian May-style on the roof of the Rover’s Return.
And did it boost the sales of his new album and single?
Of course, it had zero impact on the Week 47 chart position of Let Me Go since that entered at a healthy Number Three only a couple of hours before the ad was broadcast. Otherwise who would deny that the Meerkats effect helped the single climb up another place in Week 48? Even as the Since I Saw You Last CD collection went straight into the Official Charts Company Top 100 album listing at Number Two - held off the top spot by One Direction no less.
So you can decide for yourself whether the posse at Polydor reckon those months of meticulous planning meetings with execs from comparethemarket.com, ITV, VCCP and media buyers Zenith Optimedia really paid off.
Just don’t show them the bill for the fireworks!
