Discovery Communications/Animal Planet

It was the summer of 2006. The hiatus of most of my favorite TV shows left my TiVo gathering dust, and my recent discovery of Cute Overload left me craving televised fluffiness. I found the perfect solution in season 1 of Animal Planet's "Meerkat Manor." It has drama (the life and, sometimes, death struggles to survive in the harsh Kalahari Desert landscape); it has poignancy (meerkats, like people, are expected to do their daily chores, they squabble over territory and risk their lives to protect future generations) and most of all, it has a cast of lovable, foot-tall fuzzballs who steal your heart as they live their lives on camera. Let's see the cast of "Big Brother" do that!
Season 3 of the hit series was introduced with a brand new "burrow" on the Animal Planet site. As the page loads, flash animation of meerkats wandering around look so real, I thought it was a "meerkat-cam" the first time I logged on.

This current site iteration plays more strongly off the "Jerry Springer Show"-esque fights and scandals than previous versions, starting off with descriptions of each character and their tabloid-like escapades (Flower, the matriarch, laments in her intro that her daughters are sleeping around, and that she's pregnant. Again).

Yet amidst the tawdry capers, the concept of family is still a central theme in the show and in the marketing campaign. It's even mirrored in a print ad campaign that fantastically spoofs ads for "The Sopranos." There are also meerkat-themed games, links to mobile goodies, a place for fans to chat about the latest cliffhanger and a brand new video player that offers first-run (ad-supported) online episodes the day after they premiere on Animal Planet.
-- Jodi Harris, managing editor, iMedia Connection


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Now that 'STEVE IRWIN', the one-man branding machine who single-handedly put Animal Planet on the map, is gone, Discovery Channel needs to promote other fresh programming to keep the viewers tuned in. Enter "Meerkat Manor," in its third season, a strange mix of reality TV and animal documentary. If you don't know what a meerkat is, think semi-cute prairie dog-weasel-ferret, hence the appeal to Animal Planet's younger audience. On the show and on this fansite, the meerkats all have names and are ascribed qualities that would be more suited to desperate people locked in a house for a TV season. It's sort of like a soap opera, with real animals playing all the roles.
The fansite for "Meerkat Manor" seems geared to a younger audience, and indeed, "play games" is the first item in the navigation. You have the opportunity to vote for your favorite meerkat. There are in-depth profiles of each character, along with "find a meerkat," which is thankfully only a map to zoos that have these animals and not a link to breeders in your area.

I would prefer not having to leave the main fansite every time I click a link on the main navigation bar, and before I knew it I had five browser instances open in my toolbar; but in so doing, Animal Planet broadens their reach, taking fans to different areas of their vast domain while keeping meerkat lovers tuned to the main attraction.

They're cute little buggers, those meerkats, and so is this site. Something tells me Steve Irwin would've loved them too.
-- Dave Wilkie, creative director, Dexterity Media and advertising blogger at Where's My Jetpack?

Meerkats. My niece's favorite animal of all time. Or at least today. So I was eager to see what is so interesting about them. The "Meerkat Manor" site provides plenty of video content to help me in my next meerkat conversation.

Right on the home page, there are multiple video options that should satisfy both the mildly interested as well as the show's loyal fans. Being able to meet Carlos, Mozart, Flower, Buster and Zaphod without digging deep into the site is a smart way to keep the casual user engaged without asking too much of them. It may seem odd to be reading a bio of an animal, but the information was clear and concise and I was easily able to understand who the different characters were. Ok, they all look a like, so to me it was akin to figuring out who was who on "Eight Is Enough." Does it really matter?

Deeper into the site, things got a little more interesting. The Meerkat Dance-Off allows you to control a meerkat playing a Flash version of "Dance Revolution." You can choose your music, level of difficulty and get your meer-boogie on. There are plenty of other meergames to keep anyone busy -- especially kids who are into the show. There is also a ton of info on "the cast" -- and meerkats in general -- in text, audio and video formats. The skinned Brightcove player played clear, crisp video without any buffering issues. Some of the video that was in standalone players, however, did have some loading issues, and a few links failed to play anything but the teaser video a few times. Minor quibbles, but mentionable.

Celebrating the launch of the third season (when were the other two?), the "Meerkat Manor" site has a mobile component with video clips, ringtones and wallpapers for your cell phone.

Overall there is plenty of meer-content that is laid out in a highly functional, clean design. I'm not particularly overwhelmed with the creativity here, but the site delivers a lot of information -- and fun -- very effectively and works well enough to keep any level of meer-fan engaged.
-- Corey Kronengold, director of corporate communications, Tremor Media