What it had to solve
Pet parents want to give their dogs the best life but don't know dogs need to be fed differently at each age and life stage, and specialty-store-quality food wasn't available in grocery.
How it works
An integrated campaign across TV, BVOD, OOH, branded content and social. Slingshot sent roaming billboards to key dog-walking and play areas across the eastern seaboard, and partnered with Nine on a four-part TV series, Dogs4Life, hosted by David Campbell with celebrity dog owners, running on 9 and 9Now from 1 June.
What it did
The campaign launched Food4Life into grocery with a Nine network partnership creating and amplifying content; Dogs4Life premiered 1 June 2024 across 9 and 9Now. No sales figures were reported.
Background
In June 2024, Australian pet brand VitaPet launched Food4Life, a grocery dog food range catering to dogs 'from puppyhood through to their senior years', with an integrated campaign by The Works (part of Capgemini) and media agency Slingshot. The insight: pet parents want to do everything to give their dogs the best life, but don't know they need to feed their dog differently at each age and life stage.
The creative captured 'the many silhouettes and personalities our pets show at different ages', held together by one food that stays with them for life. Slingshot's media plan leaned on what it calls Unconventional Intelligence: roaming billboards sent to key dog-walking and play areas across the eastern seaboard — 'meeting dogs and their owners in moments where they are connecting but no media formats exist'.
The centrepiece was a partnership with Nine: a four-part TV series, Dogs4Life, hosted by David Campbell with guests including Paul Gallen, The Block winners Stef and Gian, Ruan Simms and Belinda Russell, exploring how dogs make us better humans. It launched on Saturday 1 June across 9 and 9Now, with Nine creating and amplifying content across its network. Damien Pincus called the grocery launch 'a natural next step' for a treats leader.
Simon Corbett of Slingshot framed the collaboration as proof VitaPet 'leads their category with innovative thinking'. The source reports no sales results.
Why it lands
The media plan is the creative: billboards that roam to dog parks turn an out-of-home slot into precise audience targeting.
A launch built on a category insight — life-stage feeding is unknown to most owners — rather than on price or flavour claims.
Branded content as launch vehicle: a whole celebrity-hosted TV series commissioned before the product hit shelves.
What you can take
Where standard formats don't exist, build them: roaming billboards at dog parks put the brand inside the exact moment the product is relevant.
Since then
Dogs4Life premiered on 1 June 2024 across 9 and 9Now as the campaign rolled out across TV, BVOD, OOH, branded content and social. The source reports no sales results.
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