Background

Whiskas, the No.1 kitten-food brand in Japan, wanted to consolidate the position as an authority of all thing “kitten” by supporting both the kitten and the owner have a happy, healthy life, every step of the way. As data shows, most owners become one “unexpectedly”, because they “Saved a cat from the streets--- 35.4%” or “Received a cat from a friend---21.6%” (Japan pet food association) Many try their best to care for these little kittens but find themselves overwhelmed. Complicating matters further, finding accurate, tailor-made info online is exceptionally hard. Annually, 70,000 cats are put down due to owners who give up caring for them out of lack of proper knowledge in taking care of them or selfish reasons. We also launched this out of our belief that the more people have access to support in their cat-parenting journey, the more kittens we can keep out of the shelter.

Describe the creative idea

Create a “Voice-AI trainer for kitten parents” to support both the kitten parents and the kittens.

Describe the strategy

Our target was a Cat-novice who unexpectedly and unprepared became a kitten owner, and faced great difficulties finding just the right info for their beloved kitten. To support and fit seamlessly into the kitten-nursing life---even when they are tied up tending to the needs of their kitten --- we developed a voice-AI powered trainer for kitten parents called “Meow Navi” by maximizing the existing VUI platform, Google assistant & Google Home technology. (It works “only with voice” when used with Google Home, but when used with Google assistant, visual images are also available, with data logged in the user’s smartphone. We support both.) Spring was perfect timing for the launch as many new kitten parents are born this time of the year.

Describe the execution

With professional vet support, we’ve simulated the various conversational patterns/flows and designed the service to give age-by-week appropriate advice. We included tailor-made feeding advice in our app, because “calculating the food amount according to kitten’s growth day by day”, are crucial to the kitten’s development and disease prevention. With the kitten’s current weight, the app calculates the daily appropriate food amount, then notifies the owner if their kitten’s weight is appropriate for his/her age. For kittens it’s crucial for the owners to properly and habitually monitor their kitten’s health conditions. It lets the parents know if the number of times Peed/Pooped today is normal for cats of the same type & age-of-week leading to early disease detection. We also programmed to give parents regular advice based on the changing growth stages such as cat diseases, and tips on vaccination, and foods that are toxic for cats.

List the results

“Meow Navi” quickly drew attention as a rising challenger in the Cat×IOT field. Just after a month of release, it was featured not only by cat medias but also by IT news outlets, major and national online medias, as well as Financial news platforms. Although our paid exposure was limited, we succeeded in obtaining $1.3M USD in AVE media exposure--- worth 10 times more than our total media cost.