Canine Conductors Get Tails Wagging for Pedigree

This Monday it’s International Dog Day, so what better time to spotlight one of the year’s most entertaining and original dog-themed ads from Pedigree in the USA? Dogs are a constant presence in advertising, and as Orlando Wood’s Look Out shows, there’s a very good reason for that. Dogs aren’t just adorable, they’re effective, being a way to include more vivid characters, non-verbal communication, and other elements that get and keep attention.

So dogs are Brand’s Best Friend. But that comes with a danger too. It’s easy for a dog ad to look a bit generic, and lose some of that distinctiveness in pursuit of the feelgood factor that comes naturally from seeing a puppy at play. We’ve all seen heart-warming ads with a dog front and center but no real connection to a brand – and Brand Fluency tends to suffer. Like any other advertising element, including a dog isn’t a magic effectiveness bullet.

As a pet food market leader, Pedigree has every reason in the world to put dogs on screen, but they also understand the need for an original angle to cut through and drive sales. With April’s “Tail Orchestra”, they and agency BBDO found one.

It’s a brilliantly simple concept – an orchestra conducted entirely by dogs wagging their tails. The 90 second ad is a mini documentary about how this bizarre, but beautiful, idea overcame the scepticism of orchestra leaders and made its way to the screen. And not just the screen – there’s a whole Tail Orchestra album on Spotify if you want to hear the results of these Barking Bernsteins.

The ad gives a narrative of doubt, success and triumph, and it also gives you a whole host of happy hounds, all given different stimuli like food and toys to make sure their tails wagged at different rates. The musical results are apparently wildly unpredictable, and the Polish Symphony Orchestra look like they’re truly enjoying this unusual assignment.

So is the audience. Pedigree’s ad scores 4.6-Stars in the Test Your Ad platform, predicting strong potential for brand growth given suitable investment. This is well ahead of the pet food pack, as the category average is a modest 2.9-Stars. And when it comes to the other Test Your Ad metrics, Pedigree is just as impressive. “Tail Orchestra” gets an Exceptional short-term Spike rating, well outstripping the merely good average. As for Brand Fluency, Pedigree and BBDO have managed to make their dogs distinctive. The average pet food ad only gets 75% brand recognition – “Tail Orchestra” raises that to 89%.

“Tail Orchestra” is an example of the power of the idea. No matter how outlandish a strong idea might seem, if it’s executed with wit, entertainment, and human (or in this case canine) connection, it can be turned into an entertaining and effective ad that gets every tail wagging.