Are you a cat person or a dog person? If neither of those get your tail wagging, how about hedgehogs, tortoises or tarantulas? It doesn’t matter whether your animal pals have fur, feathers or scales, the point is that the pet care industry is serious business.
According to our friends at Pulsar, the pet food industry alone was worth almost $100 billion in 2021 and was set to keep growing. Another forecast shows that pet care spending will reach nearly $188 billion in the next five years, with wearable tech and smart devices leading the charge. So, where do the opportunities lie for marketers in the space? Here are some of the most recent statistics that are showing paw-sitive growth for pet brands:
TL;DR: you’d be barking mad to miss out. This raises two key questions, how can big brands that have historically dominated the space refresh their offering to appeal to a new generation of consumers? And how can new ones make themselves heard?
In this month’s spotlight, we’ll be examining some best-in-show campaigns across two areas of the pet care industry: insurance and food. Are you ready to find out who will be leaving with a blue ribbon?
We’ve got a basic picture of what modern pet ownership looks like, but as our regular spotlight readers know (say it with me now), YOUR AUDIENCE IS NOT A MONOLITH. If the World Canine Organisation recognises 360 different types of dog, why would there be just one kind of pet owner? To help us paint a picture of the modern pet owner – and the segments within – we wanted to know how these consumers talk about their animal friends and the kind of content they engage with.
To do this, we built an affinity report which identified consumers who are talking about their pets online. This looked at the hashtags they use to talk about themselves, the kind of content they follow and share, and the people and brands they engage with online. We applied this criteria across our wide range of available platforms, including Meta.
Looking broadly at our audience of pet owners, we can see that one in five people around the world love animals. It tends to skew more female than male, and it also skews a little older. While consumers aged 25 to 34-years-old take up a large chunk of the total audience, the most vocal animal lovers tend to be 35+. This makes sense, given that the oldest millennials are now in their early 40s and the youngest are about to turn 30.
A few other interesting things stand out about our broad pet owner audience. The first is that pet lovers tend to have money to spare. The second is that even though some consumers are opting to spoil their pets in place of children, pet owners have a lot of love to give and tend to have larger families with children. Third, pet owners tend to be more ethical than the general population, caring deeply about nature and the environment.
While we can paint these broad strokes about what a pet owner might look like, it’s time to break it down. Looking more closely at our audience, we can see three clear segments: animal rights activists, animal lovers, and environmentalists.
First up in our Insurance category, we’ve got a paw-some campaign from PetSure, an Australian-based pet insurance company who set out to educate owners on the importance of insurance with some seriously cute creative.
Despite being a nation of animal lovers, PetSure discovered that only 17% of dog owners and 12% of cat owners took our insurance… despite almost 70% of the nation owning a pet. They also recognised an opportunity, with pet ownership surging in a post-pandemic environment. This lack of awareness of the importance of insurance was costing their target market serious cash, with the average Australian spending almost $500 a year on vets.
To promote their GapOnly insurance product, they used adorable pet photos to highlight how those costs can quickly rack up when you have an opportunist pet that likes to eat things they shouldn’t (every pet parent’s worst nightmare). The campaign featured paid social, PR and influencer marketing to explore the different mishaps that can befall owners and their beloved pets. They also made use of programmatic OOH targeting, selecting locations near pet stores and vet clinics to catch consumers at the right moment.
Next up we have insurance brand ManyPets, who used their first ever outdoor campaign to shine a spotlight on the pure joy pets bring us. From personal trainer to anti-stress balls and legal highs, this playful campaign got up close and personal with some furry faces to quantify the wellbeing benefits of pet ownership.
This campaign perfectly taps into the animal lovers’ segment, using adorable visuals to draw in their target market and stimulate a quick burst of serotonin. Its message, to protect your loved ones, taps into the pet owner’s audience's deep compassionate roots. It also clearly reflects the changing mindset among pet owners that pets are about more than just companionship, they bring a range of physical and mental wellbeing benefits that make them a cherished member of the family.
Talking about the campaign, Lucy Jameson of Uncommon said: “Pets make everything better. They don’t only bring us joy, they also have a proven positive impact on both our mental and physical wellbeing. In a world of stress and chaos, pets are more important than ever. We spotted there was a huge role and tension for ManyPets to play into here. We wanted to remind people that they have to insure their pets to ensure their happiness.”
Top marks for pet food brand JustFoodForDogs in our Food category, with their hilarious guerrilla campaign on the streets of New York. They used carelessly left piles of dog poo to create mini billboards, advising owners on how they can improve their pet’s diets.
Working with Walrus - an agency that describes itself as world-famous for smart, funny and distinctive ideas – they left notes stuck in piles of poo providing education on how diet can improve stool quality and improve your dog’s overall health. While a little bit disgusting, and also highlighting the issue of careless owners that don’t pick up poo, it certainly gets it point across and is a creative way of bringing real-world education to their ideal consumer.
Remember when we said big brands are still battling it out? Whiskas are on the front-paw of consumer needs, with two clever campaigns that tap into pet parent’s sense of social purpose and their love of spoiling their pets.
The first campaign comes from India, where Whiskas used their brand recognition to help more cats find their purr-fect home. Using the hashtag #BringHomeCuriosity, they ran a four-week campaign which made a virtue of their independence, encouraging potential pet parents to choose a pet who can fit around their busy lives. They created a 30-second film which aired on one of India’s largest entertainment platforms, which adorably promoted the joy of cats, in a country where cats are not typically the preferred choice of pet.
More recently from Whiskas is a brand-new campaign titled ‘Whiskas – Even The Fussy Cats’, designed to showcase their new range of Tasty Mix, Duo and Pure Delight Good. Partnering with AMV BBDO, they create several short films which show pet owners the innermost thoughts of their cat to showcase their fussy behaviour to its full glory. This campaign works well because every pet parent has experienced the pain of their pet one day deciding that the food they once loved is now the most disgusting thing they’ve ever seen. Cute creative and solving a pain point? A winning combination.
Before we wrap up this month’s spotlight, let’s take a moment to review the key takeaways for pet brands.
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