With a significant growth in spending on pet food over the past five years – up by 37% since 2011 – Wild West had been strategically seeking a pet food brand, and was delighted to begin work this summer with Forthglade, a manufacturer of 100% natural dog food based in Devon.

 

Entering a new comms category is never a simple decision, but by ensuring a sound strategy and strong creative, our story-telling team simply had to bring it to life through their media skills.

 

Building on Britain’s love affair with pets, alongside a never tiring passion for food, we capitalised on the human trend of clean eating with ‘Clean Eating for Dogs’.

 

Recruiting new brand ambassadors – a playful pair of cocker spaniels called The Houndsley Brothers – we used eye-catching photography, distinctive dog food recipes, industry experts and real life case studies (see the behind the scenes video from our photoshoot below). We also collaborated with brand partners including Hiro + Wolf dog collars and Cornishware.

 

Working closely with our in-house design team, we turned the assets into a fantastic downloadable booklet to be used as a sales and marketing tool, supporting Forthglade’s many consumer events.  Clean Eating for Dogs is everything Forthglade stands for – and our job was to capture its essence in an outward facing consumer message.

Meet The Houndsley Brothers – the latest well-groomed foodie sensations who are this week launching a new Clean Eating for Dogs campaign with their Devonian friends at Forthglade, manufacturer of natural dog food. The campaign comes as a survey commissioned by Forthglade found a staggering 85% of UK dog owners are uncertain of what they’re actually feeding their dogs.   Clean Eating for Dogs has been created to educate dog owners on the importance of a pure, natural and balanced diet for our favourite four-legged friends. The campaign will be supported by a downloadable booklet packed with advice on canine nutrition and its influence on behavior and health. The Houndsley Brother’s Guide to Clean Eating for Dogs is available to download from www.Forthglade.com/CleanEating

While the campaign is still in its infancy, we have already secured 1.2M opportunities to see and a Smart Media Index score of 2,700, thanks to quality features in the likes of Instyle (MUU 640K), LandLove (MUU 42,000) and Town & Country (MUU 760K); underpinned by news content including BT.com (MUU 8,700,000), Yahoo (MUU 42,700,000) and International Business Times (MUU 30,000,00).  Complemented with a social campaign, we’ve had tweets from Kate Humble, the health editor at The Metro, fashion features editor at Instyle and an Instagram from OK magazine (to name just a few) all using our campaign hashtag – #cleaneatingfordogs – and/or including the @Forthglade social handle.

Watch this space as the campaign continues.

[vc_video title=”Houndsley & Houndsley – Behind the Scenes” link=”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q9JpPHSWtrc”]

Georgie Upton - Divisional Director at Wild West Comms

Words: Georgie Upton

Divisional Director at Wild West Comms