Colenso BBDO

Client: Mars
Product: Pedigree
Title: Take A Baby Step Into Parenting
Media: Advertising
Country: New Zealand
Date Of Campaign: November 2020

Background: Great news. Pedigree is a brand that exists to make the world a better place for dogs. So it makes a lot of sense that they’re on a mission to end global dog homelessness by 2030. This brief was the next step. With over 200 million stray dogs in the world today, we knew we needed an idea that could weave itself into the fabric of society. So our job was simple; find a new opportunity to match homes without dogs, to dogs without homes – and leverage it with an insightful, relevant, and meaningful program of work.

Idea: Insight: 83% of millennials polled in the US last year said that pet ownership should come before children, with over 40% actively delaying parenthood in favour of life with a pet. We saw this trend for what it was. Terrible news for babies. But a great opportunity for shelter dogs, all over the world. Idea: We targeted people in a newly identified life stage: pre-parenting. We found couples under pressure to have a baby, who weren’t quite ready for parenthood, and helped them start their families. With dogs. We did it by revealing a new life stage between adulthood and parenthood, and leveraging the social pressure that came with it into the perfect excuse to adopt. A baby step into parenting. Delivery:Each element of the campaign worked in unison to directly target our audience, leveraging procreation pressure into social permission to fetch a few more years. We launched with three films that compared the possibilities of raising a baby against that of a dog, celebrating a new cultural bridge between adulthood and parenthood. We praised those who made the ‘right’ choice by reinventing the world of newborn portraiture with a doggy-twist, in print and short-form digital and social. And we targeted those with reluctant partners on social media, with a PowerPoint presentation that analysed the pros and cons of babies vs. dogs. For those who still weren't convinced, we made radio lullabies, featuring an ear-splitting children’s choir. At every stage, a microsite enabled our audience to connect with, apply, and adopt their perfect shelter dog, combining their characteristics with an algorithm that matched their lifestyle data to their perfect dog. Like DNA. But better. That’s how Pedigree discovered a brand new life stage, and hijacked it for homeless dogs. Parenthood, schmarenthood.

Results: Results: – Searches for Pedigree rose by 1,141%.– 20x humans were matched to every adoptable dog.– 96% of matches went on to enquire about taking that dog home. – Sales grew by 5%.Timings:The Pedigree ‘Take a baby step into parenting’ campaign ran in New Zealand from November 2020, to February 2021, and is due to be rolled out to global markets including the United States, Australia and Latin America in 2021. Summary:Couples became families, houses became homes, shelter dogs became family dogs, and babies waited their turn.