Welcome to the Week’s Review of Canine Social Media
Welcome to this Special Feature on the DoggieU K9 Blog for an update on this week’s dog-related media and social media from around the world. There are so many stories. Here we will share some of the best stories this week.
Enjoy & share them.
Commercials Targeted to Pets
Pet food brand launches first-of-its-kind campaign designed to engage pets – not people.
Much attention in marketing and the media in the last few years has been directed to our 4-legged family members. Trends often seem aimed at making food enticing to people and not necessarily their dogs or cats. One of the premium pet food brands has changed their focus. Its new “Made for Pets, Not People.” campaign embodies just that.
The Natural Balance pet food company developed a marketing concept backed by thoughtful scientific research — “just like our pet food.” According to their marketing director, “The results are some strange commercials that humans might not get. That’s okay because we designed these ads to appeal to our four-legged family members.”
After consulting with animal behavior expert Dr. Nicholas Dodman — professor emeritus at the Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine at Tufts University and co-founder and chief scientific officer of the Center for Canine Behavior Studies,  the new focus became — “what, if any, kind of advertising dogs and cats would most enjoy?”
So starting with some canine and feline science to truly target the right audience:
- Dogs prefer sounds in the 20 to 25 kilohertz range. In the color spectrum, we humans are a trichromatic species, dogs are dichromatic. They have a genetic issue with one of the three receptors that basically makes them red-green color blind.
- Contrast and colors are not going to be particularly important to cats. Their vision is really designed to detect movement in low light conditions. So, it’s the change of the movement that they’re sensitive to.
That was just some of the pet expertise that inspired a varied search for potential video and audio footage. To narrow down the options, Natural Balance commissioned one of the world’s first focus groups of pets – for pets. The experts report that “it’s been fascinating to see their reactions — some only to the sound, others to certain images. By creating ads that may seem odd to you and me but are captivating to dogs and cats, it’s a potent reminder to pet parents who they should really be thinking about when making decisions about what to feed their pet.”
In addition to their focus groups the Natural Balance folks are encouraging pet owners to show the ads to their pets and post their reactions on social media using #forpetsnotpeople.
To see the “Made for Pets, Not People.” ads, visit the Natural Balance website. The ads will be running on Hulu and YouTube, as well as Instagram, Facebook and Twitter.
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Some wonderful dog situations from Social Media
Click to enlarge pics and for slide show view
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