South African-born entrepreneur Douw Steyn has a lot to thank those little furry meerkats for. His creation of Aleksandr Orlov – the chief meerkat who stars in the renowned comparethemarket.com television adverts – has led to him reaping profits of £220 million. He has also recently purchased a mansion in London worth £62 million, where he will become neighbour to billionaire Chelsea FC proprietor Roman Abramovich.
Aleksandr currently has nearly 55,000 followers on Twitter and 800,000 ‘likes’ on Facebook. His catchphrase, ‘simples’, became so popular that it was included in the 2010 version of the Collins English Dictionary.
While Aleksandr was enjoying his small screen debut in the UK in January 2009 his creator was already worth £200 million, according to The Sunday Times Rich List. In 2010 Steyn was worth £320 million, in 2011 £360 million and today he is estimated to be worth £420 million.
BGL, the company behind the Compare the Market comparison site, has more than doubled in value since the meerkats came along. The company was worth £43 million in 2009 and is now worth £88 million.
Steyn stepped down as non-executive chairman of BGL early this year, and is said to now split his time between London and South Africa. He reportedly has interests in Johannesburgincluding the five star Saxon Hotel and the Shambala private game reserve. The Mirror reported that he considers Nelson Mandela a “close friend”.
Customers who purchase insurance through comparethemarket.com receive a free meerkat, and Aleksandr’s books have also been a hit; his autobiography, A Simples Life: The Life And Times of Aleksadr Orlov – which tells the story of his journey from Kalahari to Moscow – had more orders before publication the autobiographies of Tony Blair, Cheryl Cole, Russell Brand and Dannii Minogue. Six more books, entitled Meerkat Tales, have followed the publication of Aleksandr’s story.
The lovable creature recently beat established mascots including the Churchill dog and the Go Compare opera singer to win first place in the TolunaQuick poll for the best insurance and advertising character.
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