Advertiser: LAL PET PRODUCTS
Agency: OGILVY & MATHER INDIA
Category: Best Use of Integrated Media
Advertising campaign: WOW THE DOG
Executive Creative Director: Ajay Gahlaut (Ogilvy India)
Associate Creative Director: Puneet Arora (Ogilvy India)
Copy Supervisor: Rittyz Kashyap
Creative Director: Anish Diddee (Ogilvy India)
Creative Director: Preeti Koul Chaudhry (Ogilvy India)
Sr. Creative Director: Shubha Menon (Ogilvy India)
Execution
We decided to speak directly to dogs through posters, radio and mobile apps.We designed posters with our brand message, and sprayed them lightly with a meat essence. The smell was too faint to be detected by humans, but it was an inviting aroma to dogs. For radio and mobile apps, we decided to use a dog whistle’s sound. This device transmits a high frequency sound – above 20MHZ, that only dogs can hear well. It brings them to attention and they even react animatedly to it. We slapped this sound onto our radio ad, and tied up with radio channels to air this unusual frequency. We designed a mobile app. In this app, we simply mentioned our brand message, and slapped the high frequency sound onto it as well. We called it a Dog Caller, and suggested that it could be used to distract pets when they were being naughty.
Strategy
Our client was a small dog snack manufacturer. We had to increase awareness and sales of their product. For this we had to compete effectively against larger marketers for the consumer’s mind share. The target audience was dog owners. A small minority were our consumers, but the rest were either not aware of our brand or did not consider it favourably.We interviewed them to understand their relationships with their pets. Our research told us that dog owners saw their pets as family members – their kids. What their pets experienced, what they liked, was very important to them. We realised that if we found a way to sell our brand directly to the dogs, we would have greater leverage with their ‘parents’.
Effectiveness
The innocuous looking posters proved to be magnets for dogs at vets, dog hospitals etc.And when the radio ad was aired, pets were startled to hear a strange sound and reacted animatedly. And the app was very helpful in bringing naughty dogs to attention. It was a constant reminder of our brand.In every case the bemused owners were left with the impression that their pets were reacting to our brand message. Inquiries and sales for our product are increasing. Our brand is being projected as likable to dogs and informed and knowledgeable about them.