Blogging, Fear and Meerkats

So, one year into ‘The Blog’ and I’m still, just about, maintaining it. A year’s worth of integration, data, trends, recession, trust, social media, online brands, and a bit of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Cicero, singing kittens, pancakes, suicide and a new agency (Weapon7). Hmm.

This started out as a personal online library documenting interesting, but currently useless, things in the hope that they may be of use at a later date. If I’m honest, it’s actually become more of a mini project on the side supported by a constant little voice in the back of my head telling me to ‘do something good’. It’s debatable whether I’ve managed it or not but it has certainly got me thinking.

I definitely enjoy writing my blog, but I still don’t think I’m comfortable with it all yet. Clicking ‘Publish Post’ is still accompanied by that same millisecond of panic usually associated with the realisation that I’ve sent my ‘funny mail’ to the wrong Chris (why must Outlook insist on putting his name first anyway?). The difference with this is that the panic is constantly fuelled by the fear that somebody may actually read the splurge I inconsiderately fling across my own little piece of the World Wide Web. I know I’m being paranoid but Jesus, what if I’ve missed an apostrophe?!

With this in mind I’m not going to bother trying to sound smart or all wannabe plannery for this one. Instead, here’s something that made me chuckle. It’s a new campaign promoting comparethemarket.com using Meerkats.

CompareTheMeerkat.com

I don’t know what it is about animals and banks that tickle me (like here) but this made me smile. Given the current economic climate I quite enjoyed watching Meerkats go spelunking in Pakistan and knitting in Nairobi whilst I was perusing the merits of variable mortgage rates vs fixed.

More importantly, it’s managed to get comparethemarket.com imprinted in my mind where I have actively resisted these types of sites before. I was quite impressed with the size of the Meerkat site. I’d seen the TV ad but presumed that it would simply be a homepage take over but no, there’s a whole host of Meerkat fun in there. (Although it does make you wonder what people were searching for to prompt such a campaign!)

Anyways, the fear’s starting to set in. Onwards into another year before the paranoia takes hold…