Meerkats top most popular adverts of 2012

Those loveable meerkats have beaten Vinny Jones...in the race to the most liked advert of 2012.

Vinny appears in the British Heart Foundation's CPR advert, and came in second place.

Showing an increasing affection for our four-legged furry friends, animals star in four of 2012’s top 10 ads – compared to just two in both 2010 and 2011.

But according to the analysis of how the viewing public engages with TV ads, just one of the top 10 ads this year features a celebrity, compared to two in 2011 and four in 2010. So advertisers might want to save their pennies and employ a regular actor.

Other ads viewers enjoyed were Lindt showing how they make their chocolates, and the adorable Andrex puppies promoting guide dogs.

CompareTheMarket’s meerkats were also the stars of the most-liked TV ad in 2010 but were beaten to first place last year by Aldi's gin-loving pensioner.

The chief meerkat Aleksandr Orlov has nearly 60,000 followers on Twitter and since the ads started the company’s value has more than doubled.

That's one lucky advertising campaign.