Innovations in pet nutrition are getting ever more extreme as people obsess over humanising their animals. There are meat substitutes for vegetarian pets; the IAMS Poopscan that uses AI scans to assess your pet’s gut health; pet longevity diets; dogs’ Christmas dinners; and pet advent calendars. A Nationwide survey found that consumers spend more on their pets than they do on dating, gardening, or their own birthdays – and the younger you are, the more extravagant you are likely to be.
Sheba’s latest innovation understands that people worry their cats don’t love them. The “Ignored to Adored” food system eschews the faux science and goes straight for the heartstrings with a guarantee your cat will love you if you feed it enough Sheba. Celebrities who have been roped in for the experiment include former Celebrity Traitor Cat Burns, Olympic freeskater Ilia Malinin, Bollywood actress Sarvari and Haley Lu Richardson from White Lotus. A fireman, a scientist and a heroic runner also give it a try.
Anna Szpot, global campaign lead at Sheba, said, “We know that cat parents will go to great lengths to feel more connected to their felines, even if that means speaking to them or mimicking their behaviour. Ignored to adored connects with what we know about both cat and human behaviour to celebrate this unique bond.”
Andre Sallowicz, ECD, at AMV BBDO, added, “We identified the real challenge as frequency. Cats love Sheba, but their owners don’t buy it often enough. So instead of telling cat owners how good the product is, we gave them a reason to buy it more often. Because when you give cats what they want every day, you don’t just change their food, you change how they feel about you.”
At a time when so much is in flux, two things remain the same: people love their pets, AMV BBDO does excellent work for Sheba.
MAA creative scale: 8
