Malaysian Media Awards Winners Showcase





2014 | |

Doggy Dental Awareness: Have you kissed your dog today?

Advertiser: Mars
Brand: Pedigree
Creative Agency: 988
Credits: Starcom — Stephanie Foong (Planning Director),Dominic Gan (Senior Media Planner)

The Challenge
With dog dental health awareness just catching up amongst Malaysians, we were tasked to push out Pedigree’s Dental Care products on a shoestring budget to a market where dog dental hygiene was in its infancy stage.

The Solution – Insight & Idea
Euromonitor reported with the improved disposable incomes, urban consumers are now more willing to invest in pedigree dogs and premium pet care products. With toy dog owners increasing, we also saw more premium dog food and treats taking up shelf space at retail stores. Pet grooming centres are mushrooming across city centres. Toy dog owners love getting their dogs groomed – they spend a hefty sum on monthly dog grooming from hair cuts, to nail filing to spas. These dogs are always indoors. Majority of these owners believe their dogs are clean enough to be on the same beds as them. They even allow their dogs to give them doggy kisses without realizing that they often overlook their dog’s dental hygiene. Our strategy was to create content and engagement on radio, engaging dog owners to start a dental care routine. A majority of owners are Chinese and they like to share stories and advice especially on radio. We needed to educate our audience on dental awareness for dogs with the strategy of ‘content’ in exchange for more ‘content’ i.e. radio DJs to share dog dental hygiene stories in exchange for the audience’s stories.

The Execution
We partnered with 988 radio station to create five radio capsules by two radio DJs, both giving advice on the importance of dogs’ dental hygiene. To make education rewarding and to turn this dry topic into something fun and meaningful, listeners who share their stories gets rewarded with DentaStix. Listeners were able to share their stories on air via call-ins as well as online through the “Pedigree Dogs Dental Awareness” microsite. 988’s Happy Cruisers were also used to distribute samples in selected locations. Due to an overwhelming response from our radio listeners asking for more DentaStix, 988 extended the radio campaign activities. We also found good use of the five radio capsules. Instead of keeping them solely for radio, we decided to repurpose them as audio bytes by ‘airing’ them on a social platform, reaching a wider audience. We reused these capsules on Pedigree’s Facebook “Doggy DentaDash” app.

The Results
Pedigree celebrated the Dental Month with 988. Radio campaign reached 707,000 Urban Chinese between 20-49 years old, Radio campaign activities doubled and gave an ROI of 385%, 80 additional dog stories were captured and shared, Audio bytes extended reach to 7.1 million Facebook audience, Radio campaign helped increased Facebook engagement activities by 32% vs. monthly average of 3%, Exponential increase of sales of Pedigree Dental Care Treats by 10%