comparethemarket.com Rewards Scheme Sees Half a Million Meerkat Toys Claimed

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Jan 12, 2012, 08:00 ET

LONDON, January 12, 2012 /PRNewswire/ --

The hugely successful comparethemarket.com rewards campaign has reached a major milestone with the 500,000^th claim for its exclusive meerkat toys, the company revealed today.

The toys, based on characters from the company's popular TV adverts, have been in huge demand ever since the campaign started six months ago. comparethemarket.com estimates that a toy is claimed at the rate of one every 30 seconds and around 7,500 toys are delivered every day.

With customer enthusiasm showing no signs of slowing, the company recently ordered an additional 750,000 toys to cope with the demand. The scheme has generated a huge social media buzz with thousands of posts on Twitter and Facebook from excited fans talking about the toys.

Under the scheme, called Simples Rewards, all customers who have bought car, van, home or pet insurance through comparethemarket.com from 4^th July are eligible to claim a meerkat toy by logging on to http://www.meerkovo.com*. In October, the scheme was extended to cover motorbike insurance and life insurance, allowing more customers the chance to claim the sought-after toy.

"Achieving 500,000 claims from customers in six months is impressive and shows the strength of the brand and the enduring popularity of the meerkat character with consumers," said Annie Swift, CEO of Institute of Promotional Marketing. "The financial services industry has launched a number of successful loyalty schemes like the NatWest pigs and the Churchill dog. The meerkat scheme is well on the way to topping them all."

An industry first in the price comparison market, the scheme rewards customers with a meerkat toy for knowing the difference between market and meerkat and going to the correct website. The range of six toys features the original characters - Aleksandr and Sergei - as well as Bogdan, the meerpup; Vassily a regular rocker at the Queasy Mongoose pub; Maiya, the schoolteacher; and Yakov the toymaker. All toys come in their own individual presentation box, accompanied by a certificate of authentication. The toys are not on sale anywhere and the only way consumers can receive one is by making a purchase via comparethemarket.com.

*The Simples Rewards scheme is subject to terms and conditions.

About Aleksandr Orlov

Meerkat entrepreneur AlesksandrOrlov first hit our screens in January 2009. He became an internet phenomenon overnight and today has nearly 800,000 Facebook fans and almost 50,000 Twitter followers. Since the launch of Simples Rewards in July 2011 - a scheme to reward people who know the difference between meerkat and market - hundreds of thousands of people have claimed a free meerkat toy at the rate of one every 30 seconds. Over 50,000 people enquired about buying the original Aleksandr soft toy when it went on sale in Harrods in 2009, while his iSimples was downloaded over 750,000 times. Aleksandr's "A Simple's Life" sold over 500,000 copies, hitting the No.1 spot in the Christmas bestseller list and outselling autobiographies by Tony Blair, Katie Price, Michael McIntyre and Keith Richards.

About Meerkovo and Simples Rewards

Meerkovo, a small village based just outside of Moscow, is the home of best-selling author and founder of comparethemeerkat.com Aleksandr Orlov.

Meerkovo is going through troubled times because people in the UK keep confusing comparethemeerkat.com with comparethemarket.com when looking for cheap deals on insurance. This is clogging up the meerkat comparison site, so to try and solve this confusion Aleksandr asked Sergei, his trusty IT assistant, to build Meerkovo.com to provide fans with the opportunity to see Aleksandr's home village.

On 4^th July, Aleksandr launched Simples Rewards, a scheme to reward people who know the difference between meerkat and market. Since then, the meerkats of Meerkovo have been giving everyone who buys car, van, pet and home insurance through comparethemarket.com the chance to claim a free meerkat toy at meerkovo.com. From 6^th October, customers who buy motorbike and life insurance also became eligible to claim a toy.

The range of six toys comprises: Aleksandr; Sergei; Vassily, the pub rocker; Maiya the school mistress; Bogdan, the meerpup; and Yakov, the toymaker.

The Simples Rewards scheme is subject to terms and conditions.

About comparethemarket.com

comparethemarket.com was launched in 2006 as a motor insurance comparison site, offering customers a wide range of competitively priced insurance quotes instantly online.
comparethemarket.comhas grown rapidly over the past three years and is now one of the UK's leading price comparison brands.
As well as insurance, comparethemarket.com also offers comparisons on credit cards, loans, current accounts and savings accounts.
comparethemarket.com actively selects its brand partners, working with the best and most trusted organisations to ensure quality service to consumers.