Go Compare 2

When I was a teenager growing up in the Midlands there was a double glazing company called Coldseal Windows that advertised frequently on local radio. Their jingle was to the theme of Old MacDonald Had a Farm and the lyrics went a little something like this:

Coldseal Windows / We’re the best / Double 2 double 1 double 5

Coldseal Windows / We beat the rest / Double 2 double 1 double 5

It was hardly inspiring stuff but it did the job because now, 20 years later, I still know the name and phone number of the Midlands’ premier double glazing company. Whenever I think of new windows and doors I find myself instantly channeling those teenage memories and Coldseal Windows comes flooding back.

I hated those Coldseal Windows adverts. They wormed their way inside my head, latched themselves on to my memory and held on for dear life. Even now whenever I hear the music to Old MacDonald my first instinct is to think of Coldseal Windows – I fear for those moments when I have to sing along with my daughter in case the wrong thing slips out…

“But it worked” people have argued “you remembered their name, and that’s the point of advertising.”

Did it work, though? Even if I still lived in the Midlands, needed new windows and doors and Coldseal hadn’t gone bust in 2004 I still wouldn’t be calling them. Why? Because I object to being bullied, bugged or annoyed into remembering a product.

Which is all Go Compare are doing here. They’re doing the equivilent of standing next to you, prodding you in the arm and shouting “hey, hey, hey, hey” at you until you pay them some attention. They are not artful seducing you with an appealing product, they’re not winning you over with a whimsical approach and they’re not conveying any sense of likability – they’re just hijacking your consciousness and filling it with spam until you can’t help but remember their name.

Their entire campaign is based around annoying you enough until it’s reached the point where they’re the first company that comes to mind. Sure, there’s the quite amusing meercat fella and then that other one with that funny chap of the telly but Go Compare aren’t interested in being subtle about it – they’re after those few precious seconds when you sit in front of the computer and try to think of a price comparison site.

All’s fair in love and advertising? Hmmm. They’re playing the odds. There’s a good chance that this advert won’t help the image of Go Compare in the eyes of many people, but that’s not a concern of the advertisers. They only want to drill the Go Compare jingle into your head until you can’t help but associate it with car insurance, and then who the hell cares whether people like the company or not? They’re hooked. It’s instinctive. The synapses in their brain are hardwired to make the connection.

And it’s worked. Ask anyone around you and they’ll be able to sing the Go Compare song to you. It’s infiltrated British culture faster than the latest Disney tween singing sensation.

It this good advertising or is it just repetition repetition repetition? There’s nothing particularly clever about it, there’s no engagement with the audience beyond basic annoyance and I can’t see Gio Compario being used as a brand logo because it’ll just remind people how irritating the character is.

What we have here is a big blunt instrument, designed to get the best effect in the quickest time possible and with little concern for whatever mess it leaves behind. It doesn’t care that after weeks and weeks of even casual exposure most viewers will be driven insane for at least one sleepless night because the song won’t leave their heads.

To me that doesn’t reflect well on the company. While their competitors have opted to engage in a dialogue (of sorts) with their audience Go Compare have chosen to stand in the middle of the room shouting loudly until no-one can hear anyone else speak.

I’m sure that’s considered a win-win in the commercial world, however I live in the real world where I don’t like to be shouted at, I don’t like to be irritated and I don’t like to be bullied into remembering the name of a company I have little or no use for.

There is a way of combating them. It’s a small strike back but I recommend it. Next time you’re say at your computer and you’re ready to start searching for cheap car insurance and are looking to remember the name of a price comparison site – go with your second thought, not your first.