Fetch Across the Internet
Mars Petcare/ Pedigree
Issue 48 | September 2018
Agency
BBDO New York
Creative Team
Chief Creative Officer BBDO Worldwide David Lubars Chief Creative Officer BBDO New York Greg Hahn Executive Creative Directors Peter Kain, Gianfranco Arena Creative Director/ Art Director Carolyn Davis Creative Director/ Copywriter Matthew Page Typographer Chris D'Andrea
Production Team
Agency Producer Director of Integrated Production David Rolfe Group Executive Producer Diane Hill Executive Producer Alex Gianni Executive Integrated Producer Mo Twine Producer Sarah Knowlton
Other Credits
Account Team Elizabeth Kelberg, Michael Miles Senior Creative Technologist Filip Williander Editorial Editorial Company Taylor James Music & Sound Music Company Heard City Post-Production VFX Company The Mill
Date
April 2018
Background
The Pedigree brand platform “Feed the Good” revolved around the notion that dogs are good for human beings, so humans should be good to them. This concept worked well in long form story but it hadn’t been brought to life in the interactive ad units of the main social media platforms.
Idea
One way dogs are good for people is in helping them reduce stress levels through play. So the idea was to play ‘Fetch’ online, an epic game that stretched across the four major social media platforms.
The game started in Facebook Canvas. Players tilted their phones to watch a dog chase a ball. When the ball fell down a hole, they swiped up and automatically loaded Instagram. But now the ball got stuck in a tree. When the viewer tapped, YouTube loaded and a video began to play of a dog diving into a swimming pool in pursuit of the ball. Tap again and the game moved into Snapchat, where, at last the dog, now digital, actually got to catch the ball.
Usually, Facebook, YouTube, Instagram and Snapchat discouraged people from linking from them into other social media channels, so getting around this required some clever hacking. The game was designed to maximize the features of each ad unit. For instance, it used the gyrometer of Facebook Canvas, the flip-book effect of Instagram Carousel, Annotations in Youtube and World Lens in Snapchat.
Results
Over 140K impressions were recorded in the first three days. Of the 10,237 who tried it in the launch weekend, there was a 90% completion rate. People played ‘Fetch’ in their schools, offices, homes, as well as at parks and zoos and they shared the results on social media. Given each section was between 5 and 15 seconds long, they spent anywhere from 20-45 seconds with the game.
Our Thoughts
Elsewhere in this issue, Juan Carlos Ortiz has talked about ‘bipedal’ brands and how advertising is now a blend of story and technology.
Few brands are as bipedal as Pedigree, with great traditionally-bred campaigns like the ‘Child Replacement Programme’ (Caples Gold on page 8) and fun, engaging digital playthings like SelfieSTIX (Caples Gold on page 12) and this clever idea.
I’ve never seen an idea bounce from platform to platform like this. It’s surprising, relevant and fun. Further evidence of Pedigree’s mastery of the ‘always on’ approach to communications, interspersing their big ‘tentpole’ campaigns with a constant series of reminders of the brand and its values.