An Ad for Everybody From the Farmer’s Dog

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The Farmer’s Dog are one of the biggest pet food successes of our time, building a billion-dollar Direct To Consumer brand via their promise of human-grade, raw dog food tailored to the individual customer’s dog’s needs. Word of mouth and customer recommendation has been bolstered by mass media campaigns, including a successful Super Bowl ad.

At the heart of “For Everyone’s Dog”, the brand’s latest campaign, is the balance between that premium, personalised brand promise and the company’s desire to grow and convince potential new customers that The Farmer’s Dog is a brand for every dog. That’s where emotional brand advertising plays a crucial part, even in the performance-driven world of DTC subscription services.

By creating an ad with wide reach that generates a positive emotional response to the brand, The Farmer’s Dog can speak not just to customers who are in the market for a premium pet food service right now, but also to customers who aren’t in that buying window yet. They can even make an impact with people who don’t even have a pet at the moment, but who’ll remember the brand and the positive feelings the ad creates – and therefore drive long-term growth.

The way The Farmer’s Dog have approached this is by crafting an ad from a series of vignettes of pets and their owners. The emphasis is on the ways the dogs are part of their owner’s lives and families, be it taking a ride in the family truck, getting their own bowl at a kids’ TV party, or giving an exhausted new Dad a welcome pick-me-up. Everybody’s dog is special, and The Farmer’s Dog is for everybody’s dog. It’s an ad that’s strongly focused on emotional response but still finds plenty of room to introduce The Farmer’s Dog, its logo and its products.

The Test Your Ad results show that The Farmer’s Dog’s strategy here is spot-on. Not only does the ad score an exceptional long-term Star Rating but it’s a performance smash too. The Star Rating is 5.4-Stars against the US pet food average of 3.1-Stars, immediately putting this Farmer’s Dog commercial into the Top 2% of the over 1400 pet food ads we’ve tested. That’s top-tier brand building potential.

Then on the short-term Spike Rating, which predicts immediate sales uplift potential, the ad lands in the top 1% of all US pet food ads. In other words, the focus on emotional response hasn’t meant a trade-off with performance for The Farmer’s Dog. Brand and performance marketing are working hand in hand in this ad to deliver the best possible chances for growth in the short- and long-term.