Title	DOGVERTISING
Brand	PEDIGREE
Product/Service	PEDIGREE DOG FOOD
Category	B10. Use of Technology
Entrant	MEDIACOM Zagreb, CROATIA
Idea Creation	MEDIACOM Zagreb, CROATIA
Media Placement	MEDIACOM Zagreb, CROATIA
Media Placement 2	GO2DIGITAL Zagreb, CROATIA
Production	MEDIACOM Zagreb, CROATIA

Name	Company	Position
Marko Matejcic	MediaCom	Strategy
Maša Savičević	MediaCom	Management
Marko Đurković	MediaCom	Account Lead
Maja Zorc	Mars	Project Lead
Nataliia Mostova	Mars	Client Lead
Dean Udatny	Go2Digital	Project Lead
Dario Belić	Go2Digital	Creative Director
Barbara Nemec	O3 oglaševanje	Account Lead

Why is this work relevant for Media?

We took existing digital-out-of-home (DOOH) technology and gave it new purpose through our custom-built algorithms. We used technology to build new data signals that could trigger personalised, real-time DOOH ads in a perfect context – the moment when pet parents take their dogs for a walk and are fully focused on the needs of their companion. Our solution enabled us to deliver personalised advertising at scale in a cookieless world, while increasing efficiency and effectiveness. Importantly, it was about a brilliant idea: tracking dogs over people, which not only sidestepped GDPR regulations but also resulted in a double-digit sales increase.

Background

The dog treat market in Croatia was in lockdown even before lockdown became a word. Only a handful of brands used paid media in 2019, with minimal investment. But in 2020, brands re-entered the market. The pressure on Pedigree, the market leader, intensified. Our challenge was to find a way to put its hero range – Pedigree Dentastix – back out in front.

Describe the creative idea / insights (30% of vote)

We realised that pet parents were most engaged with their dogs when they take them for a walk. Getting their attention in this contextually relevant moment would be tough. All that licking, tail wagging and running… dogs definitely wouldn’t let their owner stop and look at advertising. However, we spotted an opportunity in Croatia’s unique digital out-of-home landscape. Cameras are installed in each screen nationwide to measure footfall. This technology had the potential to allow us to analyse footage to discover when a pet parent walked past our screens and be able to deliver targeted, contextually relevant messages. We could use this technology in a completely new way to target the dogs themselves. Where the dog leads, the pet parent normally follows. And, while the EU’s GDPR rules prevented us from tracking people, there’s nothing in the rules about dogs!

Describe the strategy (20% of vote)

WE WOULD DELIVER PERSONALISED ADVERTS… TO DOGS Our idea was to deliver personalised advertising using DOOH technology to target dogs. We would build a computer algorithm to analyse the camera videostream. Once it identified a dog, it would instruct the DOOH screen to show a Pedigree Dentastix ad. Dynamic creative optimisation would allow us to match products to that specific dog. This meant small dogs would see an advert showing a similar sized dog, for example, with big dogs seeing a large animal on screen. By working with Go2Digital – the leading Croatian DOOH provider – and Google’s TensorFlow we could build a machine-learning tool to detect dogs. Our activity would run over three key phases: test the technology, test the cost efficiency and finally a full-scale national roll out to test sales impact. We’d show that the best driver of Dentastix sales were dogs themselves.

Describe the execution (20% of vote)

THE WORLD’S FIRST PROGRAMMATIC DOOH CAMPAIGN BASED ON DOG DETECTION We built a machine-learning algorithm that could identify dogs in live video, becoming the first brand in the world to run a programmatic campaign based on dog detection. Our campaign rolled out in three stages: First, we ran a network-wide test, selecting the best sites and times by scanning for dogs 24-hours a day. Next, we ran our first flight across 14 screens, proving that targeting dogs would result in a lowest-cost engaged attention of any channel. Finally, we ran our national campaign which included TV, digital and OOH. We went on to isolate one region for the roll-out of our Dogvertising algorithm. We also identified stores that could be surrounded by Dogvertising screens to investigate the impact of proximity. In phases two and three, we also added creative optimisation so every dog would see a dog of similar size.

List the results (30% of vote)

29% INCREMENTAL SALES THANKS TO TECH INNOVATION The goal of our first flight was to prove that reaching pet parents result in a lowest-cost attention when compared with alternative channels – Dogvertising delivered a 34.4% lower cost for actively viewed ads by pet parents. It also delivered a 13.5 second average viewing time by pet parents – four times higher than similar Mars campaigns. Eye-tracking studies showed a CPM for an actively viewed DOOH ad by a pet parent of $9.17 via DOOH, vs $14.08 for TV. Our second flight was designed to prove how reaching pet parents in perfect context delivered additional sales. Our robust regional testing showed that when all other factors were equal, Dogvertising delivered a 29% incremental sales uplift. And when we ran the activity near stores, we delivered a 106% year-on-year sales uplift. We’re now exploring the international rollout options across the Mars network.