| Compare the Market Australia | |
| Type: | Private |
| Foundation: | 2012 |
| Location: | Brisbane, Australia |
| Industry: | Finance & Insurance |
| Products: | Health Insurance, Car Insurance, Travel Insurance |
| Homepage: | https://www.comparethemarket.com.au/ |
Comparethemarket.com.au is an Australian price comparison website operated by Compare the Market Pty Ltd, part of Innovation Holdings Australia Pty Ltd and BHL Holdings Limited. It offers a service for customers to compare a range of general insurance, health insurance, life insurance, energy and personal finance products.[1]
The company is well known for its ‘Compare the Meerkat’ marketing campaign[2] created by communications agency VCCP[3] and starring CGI Russian billionaire meerkat Aleksandr Orlov, voiced by Simon Greenall.[4]
Comparethemarket.com.au was launched in Australia in 2012, six years after the launch of comparethemarket.com in the United Kingdom.[5] Using the comparethemarket.com.au service, Australian customers can compare a number of products based on price, features, and more. These products include health insurance,[6] car insurance,[7] and energy.[8]
In 2015, the company signed a deal to secure Bupa, one of Australia's largest health insurers, as a participating health fund. The deal ensured that Bupa products could be compared on comparethemarket.com.au, alongside products from health funds like ahm (owned by Medibank) and HBF Health Fund.[9]
Comparethemarket.com.au was the first commercial comparison website in Australia to disclose the amount of commission it receives from participating health funds. As of 2016, the standardised flat fee equated to a net present value of 27.75 percent of the first-year premium of the health insurance product sold by the company.[10]
Comparethemarket.com.au continues to compete against other comparison services in Australia, like iSelect and Choosi.[11]
Compare the Market is perhaps best known for its marketing campaigns featuring meerkat characters Aleksandr Orlov and his Head of IT, Sergei.[12] The meerkat advertisements started with Aleksandr Orlov's mission to clear the confusion up for Australians who mistook his website comparethemeerkat.com.au for comparethemarket.com.au.[13]
The same marketing campaign was launched years earlier in the United Kingdom for comparethemarket.com, which ended up topping a Nielsen consumer poll to be dubbed “UK’s most loved ad”.[14] As of 2017, the UK business continues to use these characters in their own marketing.[15]
Another meerkat character, Baby Oleg, was introduced in August 2015.[16] The storyline continued with Aleksandr Orlov buying the Compare the Market business, and introduced a human character named Tom.[17] In 2017, the company launched a limited run of meerkat toys for their health insurance customers.[18] [19]
Aleksandr's catchphrase, “simples”, is so well known that it can be found in both the Macmillan English dictionary,[20] as well as the Oxford English Dictionary.[21]