Ad of the Day | Pets at Home Enlists Jimmy Doherty To Find Out "What's in The Recipe?"

Oct. 03, 2017

Pets at Home has signed up celebrity farmer, Jimmy Doherty, to front its new advertising campaign, which encourages dog owners to read the labels of their pet’s food in order to make an informed decision.

‘What’s in the recipe?’ sees the TV presenter recreating a cookery style show in a countryside kitchen to demonstrate the types of ingredients contained in some dogs’ chicken dinners. Jimmy mixes a range of ingredients - taken from an economy dry dog food recipe example -  including cereals, meat and animal derivatives and derivatives of vegetable origin before finally adding four per cent chicken and an endline, ‘Always check the ingredients’.

An investigation by Pets at Home revealed a number of differences between the ingredients in leading dry dog food products, whilst further research found that a quarter of pet owners have never read the ingredients label on their dog’s dry food.*

The television campaign, developed by krow communications, launched with a 60 second advert on Tuesday 3 October during The Great British Bake Off on Channel 4, to an expected audience of more than six million viewers. Doherty also features in another, longer video located on the campaign landing page, in which he explains what some of the terminology on dog food labels actual mean.

Print executions look like an enticing recipe card, with ingredients spilling out on the page and copy revealing the ingredients.

Jimmy appears in-store on POS with the key message of ‘What’s in the recipe?’ to communicate an understanding of ingredients being the first step to choosing the right food for your dog.

Pets at Home has also launched an online recipe calculator with the help of Havas Helia, allowing customers to compare the ingredients and feeding costs per day of their current food against a number of other dry dog food brands.

Farmer and television presenter, Jimmy Doherty, commented:

“We all want to know what goes into the food that we eat, so it's only fair that we know what's in our pets' food too. With Pets at Home’s help and expertise, pet owners can learn how to read the label and check the ingredients on their dog’s food.”

 

Scott Jefferson, marketing director at Pets at Home, added:

“On average, dog owners change their pet’s food every three years, so understanding the ingredients is the first step in choosing the right food for your dog. ‘What’s in the recipe?’ will encourage pet owners to get clued up on the key ingredients to look for, so they can make an informed decision about what to feed their dog. As a pet lover and foodie, Jimmy is known for uncovering the secrets behind lots of popular human foods, so he was the ideal choice for helping consumers to understand what’s in our dog’s food. We are delighted to have him on board and really excited about the campaign.”

 

Tim Robertson, Deputy Executive Creative Director at krow, said:

“Our creative challenge was to encourage pet owners to be more aware of what’s in their dog’s food and to read ingredient labels, not just the brand, leading them to make an informed judgement whilst positioning Pets at Home as a trustworthy source of information.”

 

The campaign will be supported across a number of channels in conjunction with a team of agencies:  Carat Manchester, Creative Race, Havas Helia and Havas PR UK.