Why is this work relevant for Media?

When you think about personalisation, and then you overlay that with the words ‘en mass,’ the first media channel that pops to mind tends to be a digital one. For Puppo, we wanted to deliver the idea where our customers were hanging out with their pooches –on the streets of NYC. Gathering data to demonstrate Puppo’s personalisation was central to the media strategy. And whilst there was a digital component, it was the poster campaign addressed to every registered dog in New York City that drove talk-ability offline and online, and a huge spike in online visits for the brand.

Background

Dog food products are generally categorised by size, either made for small, medium or large breeds, but this isn’t necessarily what’s best for them and may not be answering any health concerns. Puppo, a New York-based pet nutrition company, created a product that caters to every dogs’ uniqueness by personalising nutrition plans for each dog’s individual dietary requirements. We were tasked with introducing Puppo to NYC, to break through the FMCG mass-market, and to differentiate the start-up from other pet food companies. We aimed to increase the share of voice in an incredibly competitive market by demonstrating that each dog requires a unique dietary plan, and directing owners to sign up for a Puppo subscription nutrition plan for their dog. We also wanted to raise Puppo’s profile offline, integrating it with Puppo’s rising online presence and organic conversations. We wanted to create an individualised shopping experience for dog owners.

Describe the creative idea/insights (30% of vote)

To reflect Puppo’s personalisation in our advertising and to introduce the brand to New York City, we created a unique ad for every registered dog in the city. All 100,729 of them. Pet nutrition is an established and very competitive category and its brands typically employ mass-marketing tactics. We saw an opportunity to break through the noise of big competitors by playing off the uniqueness of Puppo’s direct-to-consumer business model. We strayed from the typical one-ad-for-100,000 consumers format, instead creating one ad for each of dog that was registered in New York City. This allowed us to connect with owners in a more meaningful way, and help them find the right diet for their dog. We used three key data sources; 1. dog registration information 2. breed, health issue and benefit information, and 3. NYC zip code boundaries.

Describe the strategy (20% of vote)

Pet nutrition is a big, well established and very competitive category. Despite its innovative product and service and its backing from Mars, Puppo is still a start-up and doesn’t have the resources for large scale advertising. Fortunately, Puppo’s personalised food for every dog, meant that a smaller, highly targeted campaign was the perfect solution. We wanted to target dog owners who have an instinctive feeling of responsibility towards their dog’s health, and direct them to sign up for a Puppo subscription plan for their dog - by demonstrating that each unique dog requires a unique diet. OOH was chosen as our hero medium, as our audience were likely often out on the streets walking their dogs, supported by digital display as the audience were also hugely active on devices.

Describe the execution (20% of vote)

To reflect Puppo’s personalisation in our advertising, we created a unique ad for every registered dog in New York City. All 100,729 of them. We created a world-first, bespoke piece of technology that used an algorithm to create one-of-a kind personalised placements. It utilised data from the NYC Dog Licensing Dataset, and linked each dog to a unique Puppo health benefit. It then input all this data into a sophisticated modular copy and art direction system, to generate thousands of combinations of iconography, colours and fonts alongside the dog’s name, breed and health benefit. Posters and digital OOH targeted owners by zip code, within dog-walking distance to where they live, to help make sure they saw their dog’s ad. Placements were supported by geotargeted digital display to ensure we got the reach and scale needed for every NYC dog to see their advert.

List the results (30% of vote)

New Yorkers responded well to the ambitious idea of 100,729 unique ads for dogs, and in turn sought out to order their dog their very own personalised meal plan. The Puppo website saw a 68% spike in new users in just one week. From those, 28% of new users came directly from our posters. In addition, there was a 144% increase in organic web searches for Puppo. We set out to create a data-driven tech campaign in order to individually address each dog in New York. We designed ‘Every Dog Has Its Ad’ to break through the traditional format of one-ad-for-100,000 consumers, and instead created an ad for every individual dog. Use of data allowed us to design this audience personalisation. By personalising our advertising, we were able to connect with our audience on a one-to-one level, and individualising the consumer experience evoked a positive response.

Describe the use of data, or how the data enhanced the campaign output

‘Every Dog Has Its Ad’ was a data-driven tech campaign at its core. This was also aligned with Puppo’s use of data - Puppo gathers information from each customer in order to create a bespoke meal for each pet. We used three key data sources: 1. dog registration information (dog owners residing in NYC are required by law to license their dogs and the data was publicly available from the DOHMH Dog Licensing System within the Department of Mental Health and Hygiene, under The Freedom of Information Law) 2. breed, health issue and health benefit information, and 3. NYC zip code boundaries. Finally, we used Google Maps for zip code definitions and boundaries.