My Dog encourages travellers to treat the one who misses you most in new work via Colenso

Whenever people travel abroad they are almost always expected to buy duty-free gifts and treats for friends and family, even colleagues, but most never think to buy anything for the ones who miss them the most – their dogs.

To premium dog food brand My Dog (known as Cesar in some markets) and its agency Colenso BBDO, this seemed wrong, so the agency set out to do something about it.

In a world first, the dog food brand ran a pilot activation allowing incoming travellers at Auckland airport to buy a treat for the one who misses them most, the way they normally would for friends.

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They used airport media cleverly to tug on the heart strings of disembarking dog owners and make them realise that they’d forgotten about their dog so that when they passed the luxury style pop-up store, they were ready to buy a a gift for them – a premium pouch of My Dog packaged up the way you’d expect of any luxury travel retail gift.

My Dog hit upon an untapped consumer need and seven times more product was sold than the average New Zealand store would sell in the same time. Moreover people confirmed that despite always returning home with treats for others, they had never considered bringing something from the airport for their dog, and had never even felt bad about not doing so because the opportunity hadn’t existed.

The activation proved that given the opportunity, dog owners would buy a treat for their fluffy friend on impulse when passing through duty free. Thus establishing that a viable and untapped retail channel exists in airports for the premium dog food brand.

Says Debbie Laing, marketing manager of Mars Petcare New Zealand: “It’s the perfect place for My Dog as we are positioned as a premium treat for dogs. To see the results where its out performed sales in a normal New Zealand supermarket really shows that there’s untapped potential.”

Says Ahmad Salim, group business director at Colenso BBDO: “It was one of those great insights that was bang on brand and seemed so small and simple at first. Then you realise it could lead to something genuinely business changing and for a brand with a global foot print within an organisation like Mars, that’s massive and truly exciting.”

As a result of the pilot Mars are now discussing this opportunity at a global level and My Dog/Cesar, could become the first dog food brand to be available in travel retail around the world.

Aaron Turk – Creative Director

George Howes – Art Director