Whistle's first US campaign mocked the absurd ways people track pets without a tracker

Whistle's GPS and activity tracking device makes pet care proactive, but the brand was unknown. Its first US campaign had to explain what the product does by dramatising the problem it solves, under Mars' new Connected Solutions division combining technology, diagnostics and data.

Sell a pet tracker by showing the ridiculous alternatives — the launch film asks if a drone is a smart way to keep tabs on your pet, and answers 'probably not'.

BBDO San Francisco built the campaign around the silly and highly unproductive alternatives to using Whistle's tracker, launched 15 May 2017. The launch film, directed by Guy Paterson through Fat Lemon with post by Big Buoy, follows the 'drone as pet-sitter' premise to its giggle-worthy conclusion.

Whistle's first US marketing campaign, putting the young brand and its GPS/activity tracker in front of American pet owners across film. The source reports no viewership or sales figures.

Whistle made a GPS and activity tracker for pets, but in 2017 almost nobody had heard of pet tech. On 15 May 2017 the Mars-owned brand launched its first US marketing campaign, created by BBDO San Francisco under chief creative officers David Lubars and Matt Miller.

The campaign's device was negation by ridicule: instead of explaining features, each film highlights a silly and highly unproductive alternative to using Whistle. The launch execution takes the question in its title — are drones a smart way to keep tabs on your pet? — and answers 'probably not', dramatising just how badly a drone performs as a pet-sitter.

Directed by Guy Paterson through Fat Lemon with editorial by Sam Bould and post by Big Buoy, the work introduced Whistle as part of Mars' new Connected Solutions unit, a division built on technology, consumer diagnostics, and data and analytics — and gave the unknown product a memorable reason to exist.

Nobody was searching for a pet tracker, so the campaign had to create the problem awareness first — the absurd alternatives show life without the product.

Comedy travels: a drone chasing a dog is self-explanatory in a thumbnail, suiting a product whose benefit is hard to film.

Launching under Mars' Connected Solutions umbrella, the brand needed consumer-facing storytelling to translate a data proposition into pet love.

Negating the alternative ('probably not') frames Whistle as the sensible answer without a single spec sheet.

For an unknown product, comedy about the problem works harder than demonstration: mocking the absurd alternative makes the real solution feel obvious by comparison.

The campaign ran as Whistle's first US marketing push in 2017. Mars continued investing in connected pet care; the source article reports no measured campaign results.