If the Internet had a pet, it would be a cat: cat videos are the most popular YouTube content, by miles. But for owners seeking information, the internet had little to offer except boring, dry text.

Whiskas’ ambition is to be the reference in cat care, so we set out to help cat owners at every stage of their ownership journey, through digital.

We had to provide detailed cat care information but also stand out against a world of LOL-cat videos. Using search data we identified what cat owners most wanted to know. By combining that with category audits, YouTube content audits and owner profiling we knew that creating an imagined world, run by cats and featuring fantastical technology would be a hit!

So… We created Whiskas Kat Institute of Technology. A Silicon Valley tech company run by cats; allowing us to offer serious care advice, in an entertaining way.

The next step was to create answers that were relevant, accurate, direct and actionable. Working closely with client and its WALTHAM Centre for Pet Nutrition, we created the most succinct yet complete technical answers.

Global agencies within the network helped us identify local data points that would give richer, more insightful content (eg. emerging markets for home-made pet food, Japan for senior cats). Creative briefs were developed, resulting scripts were written and its technical accuracy, stress tested.

Content was developed to drive awareness of the K.I.T platform, then episodic content used to encourage consideration of Whiskas as the online reference in cat care, and finally content linking specifically to purchase and products to ensure that the purchase loop is closed.

The work took one year of creative and media development and was launched in the UK in March/2017, with the ambition of being deployed in 15 markets within two years.

The programme will be evaluated against 2 main KPIs:

- Impact on sales/ROI. Measured through Nielsen Matched-Panel-Analysis.

- Contribution towards becoming the online reference in cat care. This is measured though reach and uplift in search ranking across 285 key search terms.

The full campaign launch was in March 2017 so it is too early to report on the impact on sales.

But the reach and search ranking results are impressive:

- Reached 2.3 million UK cat owners within two weeks. (47million view worldwide when combined with Kitten Kollege sister platform.)

- 61% uplift in search ranking. (Whiskas appearing in positions 1 -3 in 285 key cat care search terms on Google

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