ABOUT

EUROPEAN BRAND IDENTITY; ADVERTISING, OOH, WEBSITE, SOCIAL CONTENT, BRAND FILM, INSTORE DISPLAY, FACE-To-FACE & DIGITAL SAMPLING

The European specialist pet food category is dominated by functional messaging from a handful of globally trusted brands. Nutritional benefits, scientific ingredients, clinical claims. Every brand offers a breadth of highly tailored recipes, and every product promises an innovation in canine health.

It’s an airbrushed world of perfect pure breed animals, supported by a closed network of referring partners that locks in relationships with pet care professionals, vets, breeders and pet shops.

For a relatively unknown brand like Purina Dog Chow, with limited distribution and without a lab coat breakthrough to hang its credentials on, it’s a difficult party to crash.

THE IDEA: MISSION ACCOMPLISHED

Dog Chow recognised that high quality nutrition needn’t be sterile. There was space for a more emotional proposition, inspired by dogs’ true nature. Real dogs, with messy coats and muddy paws.

Our idea was to disrupt the category with authenticity, and we enlisted the help of real dog owners to realise it. We started with the thought that real dogs are always on a mission, and we asked dog lovers to explain their dogs’ missions to us. We turned their stories into a brand story, and they immediately liked the idea of a specialist brand that celebrated the same natural, instinctive behavior they loved in their own dogs. And that promised the complete, balanced nutrition needed to fuel that adventurous spirit.

The missions became adventures, brought to life in print, out of home and online, across 17 European markets. A new brand website, instore display, promotions, face-to-face and digital sampling. All campaign elements centrally produced and toolkitted, along with executional and brand guidelines for local implementation.

Thanks to dog owners themselves we challenged the rules for specialist pet food. Our heroes are wet and muddy and disheveled. So much more like the real dogs that dog owners love.

Unlike our clinical competitors, we connect advanced nutrition with natural, active behavior – a benefit every real dog owner can instantly understand.