Andrew Girdwood's blog - Latest Comments in Confused and Gio Compario

Re: Confused and Gio Compario

Matt — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 04:44:38 -0000

I have to agree with Ageny_ZigZag. Having quality search professionals behind your technology is sometimes more important. The point I'm trying to make is that having that mix of technology and management will almost always trump a technology only solution. Moneysupermarket's success just reflects the strength of their in-house team.

On another point - I would've expected the agency to have a more structured account set-up before releasing the ad. There seem to be a lot of gaps in what they're bidding on.

Oh and Andrew, I don't personally work on the account - I'm an SEO-er.

Re: Confused and Gio Compario

Andrew Girdwood — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 11:54:29 -0000

I think it's been disadvantageous to name the singer to trade press. I don't think he's named in the ad. All that's happened is we're debating the wisdom of the ads and, as you say, they're not bidding on the just-as-cheap visual terms created by the ad.

Re: Confused and Gio Compario

Andrew Girdwood — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 11:52:35 -0000

The Moneysupermarket team seem to do really well. Most times you can see the human intelligence at work. My hunch is that the human intelligence aspect of the campaign sits with Moneysupermarket and the technology is provided by EF.

If so it just proves that agencies have to work hard to provide value to clients with the right expertise and access to the right tools.

Re: Confused and Gio Compario

davorgoldie — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 11:19:58 -0000

Interestingly enough nobody is running PPC on terms like "Gocompare Advert", or "Gocompare opera singer", Don't know about volumes, however I couldn't remember the singers name, and i'm sure plenty of people won't remember it either.

As mentioned previously it's not about tech, it's about the quality of the team, thinking a little quickly and seizing an opportunity.

Re: Confused and Gio Compario

Agent_ZigZag — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 11:04:52 -0000

On the point about technology led optimisation from Matt at TSW… I don’t believe that capturing an opportunity such as this has any bearing on whether you use technology to bid manage or not. Moneysupermarket are with Efficient Frontier and they have also capitalised on the opportunity.

It’s about the team behind the tech :)

On some other comments, I don’t think it’s because the head terms are prohibitive as all the main competitors in the sector all appear on them. Neither do I think that it is anticipated that this will drive a significant amount of traffic.

However, if Go Compare are happy to spend significant amounts in creating a “buzz” around Gio and driving search volumes around related terms, then why not capitalise on it and gain some cheap traffic? Especially as the character and the campaign are not as strong as Aleksandr, increasing the likelihood of intercepting customers at the point of search.

Re: Confused and Gio Compario

mattboland — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 09:25:32 -0000

Possibly, but I think in this market it's so competitive that many head terms are prohibitive.

This could be a cheap and easy way of capitalising on GoCompare's ad spend. To be honest, the amount of people searching on Gio Compario or whatever his name is will probably be very low and be mainly made up from industry people checking it out and having a laugh... All depends on how much other media is out there that actually mentions his name.

Re: Confused and Gio Compario

Andrew Girdwood — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 09:09:25 -0000

Thanks for stopping by and leaving the comment. Do you work on the account?

Re: Confused and Gio Compario

Andrew Girdwood — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 09:08:45 -0000

Yeah. Noticed that this morning too. Does it mean the ad is being considered somewhat successful if more aggregators want in on the act?

Re: Confused and Gio Compario

mattboland — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 09:03:03 -0000

Interesting to see that Moneysupermarket's getting in on the act as well:

No Opera, No Meerkats
Just great savings on your car
insurance - Save upto £329!
Moneysupermarket.com

Re: Confused and Gio Compario

Chris — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 12:15:29 -0000

The red phone is iconic - I predict Gio will fade away rather quickly

Re: Confused and Gio Compario

Matt — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 11:48:09 -0000

I work for The Search Works and I can confirm we are responsible for the paid search ad. We actually did a similar thing when comparethemeerkat.com first came out.
This is where knowledgeable and informed account managers can beat technology-led optimisation every time. Enabling us to react quickly to changes in the industry and take advantage of opportunities where possible.

Re: Confused and Gio Compario

insuranceblog — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 10:21:08 -0000

It's definitely a "me too" campaign. But it's cheap and it will work. I'd love to see some more originality in marketing campaigns but when you're talking about insurance it can be hard!

Re: Confused and Gio Compario

davorgoldie — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 06:15:16 -0000

I think you hit the nail on the head. They are an online only business so they should know better; however as you know sometimes as a company spend so much offline it takes the lead. For a company who will live or die by PPC, SEO, ROI, CPC, ETC it reeks of WTF.

Re: Confused and Gio Compario

Andrew Girdwood — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 06:01:25 -0000

Yeah. I noticed the pedigree of the ad. Don't you think it runs a slight risk of being an "me too" ad?

Re: Confused and Gio Compario

Andrew Girdwood — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 05:59:37 -0000

I think they could have done a lot better. My hunch is that the PPC ad reacted to match the advert and the usual story of offline not cooperating with online happened again.

Re: Confused and Gio Compario

davorgoldie — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 05:55:17 -0000

Noticed that this morning Andrew. It is a poor Ad. What's worse is the fact they haven't considered the joined up approach before executing the TV campaign. A lot like Orange's "I am", rivals using GoComapre's spend offline to beat them online. Not exactly holistic is it?

Re: Confused and Gio Compario

Alex — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 05:31:01 -0000

They also did a good one saying something along the lines of:

"Confused about what meerkats have to do with car insurance?"

...back when the meerkat ads first came out. It's cheeky but effective.

Re: Confused and Gio Compario

insuranceblog — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 05:25:25 -0000

GoCompare are sticking with what works. The great team that created the red phone, the esure mouse and sheila's wheels have come up with gio compario the opera singer.

It's good to see a bit of humour in the marketplace but as you say Andrew, it doesn't take long for Confused to get in on the business action just like they did with the Aleksandr the meerkat google ads

George
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