Moneysupermarket slams ‘annoying’ ads

The comparison site, which dropped its own brand character, played by comedian Omid Djalili, a  year ago is launching its second ad promoting its whole range of comparison products from car insurance to credit cards.

The 80s themed ad, created by Mother, is based on 80s TV series such as Dynasty or Magnum P.I. and puts family man Gary at the heart of a mini-series dubbed “The £1,000 man”. It features opening titles and a montage of is money-saving activities.

It aims to show the ways that he has saved £1,000 by using Moneysupermarket’s comparison service for his car insurance, home insurance, energy bills and credit cards.

The TV ad will break on Sunday followed by a radio ad campaign, and PR, social and CRM activity.

Paul Troy, consumer marketing director who joined from Barclaycard in January last year, told Marketing Week that what differentiates Moneysupermarket from its rivals, is that it now has a “brand idea” where others still rely on brand characters such as Go Compare’s Gio Compario, Confused.com’s animated Cara, and Comparethemarket’s meerkat.

“This is a category that should be liked by customers and used by them to get a good deal. It’s not good for the market to have a character that ultimately detracts from the category and people tune out because it’s annoying,” he says.

“Brand characters look to swap share, but we [Moneysupermarket] want to grow the category. What sets us apart from the competition is having a brand idea that’s relevant to saving money.”

Troy also says that the brand also plans to start including user generated content in future campaign activity to leverage real customers’ experiences in feeling great from saving money using the site.

He added: “The single biggest reason that people come to sites like ours is to save money – it’s amazing that no [brands] in the category has actually been communicating that so we’ve wrapped that up into our brand idea.”

Moneysupermarket claims to be the biggest player in the comparison market sector, with more visitors to its site than its major rivals combined. It reported growth of 21% last year and is seeing similar growth so far this year.