Since its introduction in 2009, the meerkat mascot ‘Aleksandr Orlov’ became the symbol of the Compare the Market comparison website, and helped the company double its 2008 market value of £43m. However, the company is now moving away from their iconic symbol. At the same time their competitors, Confused.com, have launched their own brand mascot in an attempt to emphasise the expertise of their service.

When the price comparison website boom was building momentum, Compare the Market’s communications agency managed to differentiate their services thanks to a clever pun and an odd looking mascot that soon attracted the attention of consumers. A website featuring the mascot, Compare the Meerkat.com, was launched; along with a whole series of meerkat characters created to support the leading star, Aleksandr, who has over 60,000 followers on Twitter.

Despite their popularity, Compare the Market now considers that these symbols have “shelf life”, and have decided to move their PR work from Good Relations to Freud. According to Mark Vile, marketing director: “We have appointed Freud as our retained communications agency with an extensive brief. We were looking for a strategic comms partner and Freud brings us not just best in class reputation counsel and execution, but a blend of expertise in sponsorship, corporate affairs and CSR platforms, and consumer insight-led campaigns.”

Concurrently, Confused.com are unveiling their new branding and marketing campaign, starring Brian the Robot. Their idea is to re-brand the site to focus on their insurance expertise, as well as to include a full range of social and digital elements: pages on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, and Google+.

With this move, Confused.com wants to highlight their specialisation in the insurance market, and to highlight that they were the first comparison site to the market in 2002. Joby Russell, Marketing Director at Confused.com says: “We are really excited to be re-branding our business and making a star of our new icon: BRIAN. We want our customers to understand that Confused.com is an absolute expert when it comes to comparing insurance and saving money. Therefore we should be the first port of call for customers who are looking for a great deal.”