Ad Of The Week

Pets and pet care are an emotional topic, so it’s no surprise that the pet categories are the home of some of our highest scoring ads. From everyday feeding, through supplements and animal medicines, to charities who look out for our animal companions, the pet advertising sector is highly competitive. And because pet ownership crosses every demographic, pet brands are particularly attracted to broad-reach, brand-building advertising.

So for a pet ad to top our charts, it needs to be something special. YuMove aren’t an entirely new brand – they’ve been around for well over a decade – but they’re only recent arrivals on UK TV. YuMove are a specialist brand – their supplements help the joints of dogs who are suffering stiffness, mobility problems or just feeling their age a bit.

Only a small proportion of pet owners will need YuMove’s products at any given time. But the available audience is much wider than that, because every dog owner might face that situation and YuMove wants to be ready to help when they do. So a broad, emotional appeal makes sense as a way to introduce the brand.

“A Love Letter To Dogs” gets on pet owners’ wavelength by showing how well the brand understands the sheer variety of activities, games and exercise dogs love. They are naturally very sociable and active creatures, and the advert shows that with a montage of footage of dogs at play. Rather than tug at the heartstrings by showing dogs slowing down or having trouble, YuMove builds up happiness across the ad before introducing itself as the brand which can keep a dog moving or liven it up again.

The new ad hits exactly the right note with viewers, scoring 5.2-Stars – a rating which suggests exceptional brand-building potential. “A Love Letter To Dogs” lands at #2 in the highly competitive Pet Food, Treats And Other category. And what’s at #1 with a sky-high 5.8-Stars? It’s another edit of the same ad, which came out last year when emotional bonds between pets and owners were even stronger thanks to the pandemic.

“A Love Letter To Dogs” isn’t a perfect ad – its Brand Fluency is low, though this is mostly down to YuMove’s unfamiliarity to most of the audience, and will naturally improve the more famous YuMove gets. But it’s an exceptional performance for a small brand and shows that new-to-TV brands can compete in even the strongest categories.

Credits:
Client: Andy Smith
Creative: Jo Tanner
Strategy: Steve Stokes