Life of Brian (the robot)

Since Confused.com decided to scrap Cara, the scruffy haired cartoon karaoke singer, Brian the robot has been introduced to spearhead the price comparison website's re-positioning with a backing of approximately £28million, according to CampaignLive.

Although Brian has been programmed with a lack of social skills, his charming nature adds to what is unfolding to be an extremely clever multimedia integrated campaign.

The campaign first started with the inception of Brian, who we saw being brought to life in a 40" TV spot called 'Lab', during the semi-final of Britain's Got Talent earlier this month.

The campaign then unfolded across other media - with simple and impactful ads running in print, outdoor, on the radio and across multi digital routes.

The outdoor campaign appears to be dominating key cities with heavy presence by running a generic money saving ad on T-sides across the bus network ....

.... as well as location specific large format ads tailored to the area and audience they are placed in.

A further TV execution is now running - where we get to see and hear more of Brian's personality and sound effects as he traverses around a car boot sale, conversing with some slightly bemused folk.

This adds impact and association to the radio ads now running, due to the immediate (robotic) voice recognition of the audio.

Added to all of this there is digital activity running across the piece, with some virals, Facebook and Twitter profiles - inviting us to find out more about the Life of Brian.

So how effective is a socially inept, fictional character in the world of social media? 

Answer: extremely effective so far. Aided by the interactive elements and the #BrianTheRobot hashtag running across other elements of the campaign.

Could this be the start of a battle for FB friends and Twitter followers; Brian the Robot vs. Aleksandr the Meerkat in a price comparison, fictional, loveable character war?

We hope so - but it will take some time (and more marketing investment) for Brian to catch up given he has only received 302 likes for his Facebook page and 1,068 Twitter followers to date vs the plethora of likes Aleksander has amassed - a meer 797,000 as well as 60,519 Twitter followers to date.

#PurePoint