Pets at Home has signed up celebrity farmer Jimmy Doherty to front its new advertising campaign, which launches tonight.
‘What’s in the recipe?’ sees the TV presenter recreating a cookery-style show in a countryside kitchen to demonstrate the types of ingredients contained in some dogs’ chicken dinners.
Doherty mixes a range of ingredients – taken from an economy dry dog food recipe example – including cereals, meat and animal derivatives and derivatives of vegetable origin before finally adding 4% chicken and an endline, ‘Always check the ingredients’.
An investigation by Pets at Home revealed a number of differences between the ingredients in leading dry dog food products, whilst further research found that a quarter of pet owners have never read the ingredients label on their dog’s dry food.*
The TV campaign, developed by krow communications, launches with a 60-second advert during The Great British Bake Off on Channel 4.
Doherty also features in another, longer video located on the campaign landing page, in which he explains what some of the terminology on dog food labels actual mean.
Other collateral includes a recipe card and Jimmy appears in-store on POS with the key message of ‘What’s in the recipe?’.
Pets at Home has also launched an online recipe calculator with the help of Havas Helia, allowing customers to compare the ingredients and feeding costs per day of their current food against a number of other dry dog food brands.
Doherty said: “We all want to know what goes into the food that we eat, so it’s only fair that we know what’s in our pets’ food too.
“With Pets at Home’s help and expertise, pet owners can learn how to read the label and check the ingredients on their dog’s food.”
Scott Jefferson, marketing director at Pets at Home, added: “As a pet lover and foodie, Jimmy is known for uncovering the secrets behind lots of popular human foods, so he was the ideal choice for helping consumers to understand what’s in our dog’s food. We are delighted to have him on board and really excited about the campaign.”
The campaign will be supported across a number of channels in conjunction with a team of agencies: Carat Manchester, Creative Race, Havas Helia and Havas PR UK.
