AMVBBDO

Client: Mars Petcare
Product: Sheba
Title: The Cats That Rule The World
Media: Online
Country: Global
Date Of Campaign: November 2020

Background: SHEBA® is a premium cat food brand that is more often bought as a treat than as a day to day staple. This means it needs to find ways to be top of mind for when owners want to get something special for their cat. But with 70% of category growth coming from online sales, there’s only so much that can be done in the supermarket aisle and within traditional, highly cluttered advertising channels - especially as a challenger brand with a small market share. The brand needed to compete for attention with the superstar cats of the internet. SHEBA® needed a different idea that would get to cat owners’ minds and end up in more cats’ bowls. It needed to build a brand in a way that was mutually valuable for our audience.

Idea: To prove SHEBA®’s brand platform that cats really do rule the world, and our resistance to them is futile, we created a documentary series that shows real extraordinary cats and the surprising power that they hold over their humans. Each episode brings to life the brand platform in surprising ways. From a cat that literally conquers mountains, to prison cats able to get law-breaking criminals firmly under their paws, to a cat conquering Hollywood, to a cat becoming a Japanese Station Master and then a god, the documentary follows the cats and their humans who tell their stories in their own words.SHEBA® has a global brand platform of ‘Resistance is Futile’, where cats have this magnetic power to make their owners surrender to their desires. Until now, it had mainly existed in the shape of adverts across media platforms.To get more owners to see SHEBA® as the brand that really understands their special relationship with their cat, we wanted to create a special place in their hearts and minds. A long-form-shaped one, able to deepen the emotional dimension of the platform and the incredible power cats have over us. To manipulate us. To heal us. To make us better. The documentary ‘The Cats That Rule The World’ took the brand platform into the wider world of entertainment, where we see this power on full, poignant display.In episode one, the prisoners of Larch Correctional facility rescue feral cats and socialise them so they can be adopted into homes. In turn the cats help the prisoners escape from their loneliness and traumas and teach them empathy and how to love. The episode explores the deep, profound bonds that develop between these unlikely companionsIn Military Cat, Iraq war veteran Jordan tells us how his cat helped him recover from the traumas of war and helped him find his way home.While Hollywood Cat is a pure rags to riches tale as Goose goes from rescued stray to the star of Hollywood films and living a life of five star hotels, first class travel and spa treatments.

Results: With cat ownership soaring throughout the world, ‘The Cats That Rule The World’ has capitalised. It has achieved over 2.5 million views and 45 000 hours of viewing time. With an 800% increase in subscribers to their channel and over 95% positive sentiment. Perhaps the biggest indicator of success, however, is a few weeks after launch the documentaries have gained enough viewing hours to turn the SHEBA® brand channel into a monetised content channel, proving that when the entertainment is good enough brands can create it and distribute it.