Moneysupermarket.com

History

The business was established in 1993 by Simon Nixon, at the time a student at Nottingham University, and Duncan Cameron as a provider of off-line mortgage information to Independent Financial Advisors under the name Mortgage 2000. and in 1999 launched moneysupermarket.com providing on-line mortgage information. Since then the business has been developed to provide credit card and personal loan information

In June 2007, Duncan Cameron left the business selling his 47% stake to Simon Nixon for £162m and in July 2007 the company was listed on the London Stock Exchange. At the time it had a market capitalisation of £843m, with Nixon releasing £101m and retaining 54.5% of the business.

Operations

The Company derives its revenues from three main sources:

The UK website has set up a scheme named the Cheap Energy Club, an example of a service that allows consumers, rather than companies, to become responsible for their own data management. The scheme requires you to input data regarding your current energy tariffs and state the amount of saving for which you would be willing to switch providers. Tariffs that are available are then reviewed every month and you are notified when switching would trigger your target saving.

Criticisms

In 2007, The Guardian noted that for household and car insurance, price comparison websites such as moneysupermarket.com rarely include all products on the market and that price comparisons are consequently incomplete.

Adverts

In 2010, adverts featured comedian Omid Djalili as the character of "HaggleHero".

Then from 2011 to 2013 showed adverts such as man surfing on an inflatable crocodile, another man in a jungle with gorillas and another man going into space. In August 2013 a new advert was launched showing a man named Bill running around Croydon with an army of cats whilst a spokesman played by James Lance saying that Bill is so Moneysupermarket.

In 2014, a new advert was launched featuring Snoop Dogg and his song "Who Am I (What's My Name)" features on the ad.

In January 2015, another advertising campaign was launched featuring a man named Dave (played by Michael Van Schoik), walking down a street in L.A, dressed in a shirt, suit jacket, denim hot pants and high heels. He alongside two other people, struts confidently to the song "Don't Cha" by the Pussycat Dolls, while showing off his prominent rear to stunned onlookers, including Sharon Osborne. It was later revealed by the Advertising Standards Authority in the UK to be the most complained about advert in 2015 with 1,513 complaints. In their ruling, the ASA found that whilst it may be distasteful so some, it did not judge the ad was offensive and the complaint was not upheld.

In July 2015, another advert was launched. It shows a chubby construction worker named Colin (played by Kyle McIntire). He dances, gryates, does a worm dance and a split in front of his co-workers and the bemused office staff at the other building. The song featured in this ad is "Just a Little" by British pop group Liberty X. At the end of the advert, he also swings on a wrecking ball (a reference to the video of Miley Cyrus' Wrecking Ball).

In January 2016, another TV campaign by agency Mother was launched featuring a bodyguard named Gary. The song featured in the ad is "Big Bad Wolf" by Duck Sauce, an American-Canadian DJ duo.

In April 2016, another advert was released. It showed all three of the 'epic' people having a dance off in a car park. The song featured in the advert is "Worth It" by Fifth Harmony featuring Kid Ink. The ad premiered during the first break of Britains Got Talent.