We took existing digital-out-of-home (DOOH) technology and gave it new purpose through our custom-built algorithms. We invented new data signals to trigger personalised, real-time DOOH ads in a perfect context – the moment when pet parents take their dogs for a walk and are fully focused on the needs of their canine companion. Our contextual targeting solution enables us personalised advertising at scale in cookieless world while also increasing both efficiency and effectiveness.

Most importantly, it was about a brilliant idea: tracking dogs over people, which not only sidestepped GDPR regulations but also resulted in a double-digit sales increase.

The dog treat market in Croatia was in lockdown even before lockdown became a word. Only a handful of brands used paid media in 2019, with minimal investment.

But in 2020, brands re-entered the market. The pressure on Pedigree, the market leader, intensified.

Our challenge was to find a way to put its hero range - Pedigree Dentastix - back out infront.

GDPR APPLIES TO HUMANS… BUT IT SAYS NOTHING ABOUT DOGS

We realised that pet parents were most engaged with their dogs when they take them for a walk.

Getting their attention in this contextually-relevant moment would be tough. All that licking, tail wagging and running… dogs definitely wouldn’t let their owner stop and look at advertising.

However, we spotted an opportunity in Croatia’s unique digital out-of-home landscape. Cameras are installed in each screen nationwide, which meant that if we could somehow analyse the camera’s view we could know when a pet parent walked past our screens and be able to deliver targeted, contextualy-relevant messages.

We could use this technology in a completely new way to target the dogs themselves. Where the dog leads, the pet parent normally follows.

And, while the EU’s GDPR rules prevented us from tracking people, there’s nothing in the rules about dogs!

WE WOULD DELIVER PERSONALISED ADVERTS…TO DOGS

Our idea was to deliver personalised advertising using DOOH technology to target dogs. We would build a computer algorithm to analyse the camera videostream. Once it identified a dog, it would instruct the DOOH screen to show a Pedigree Dentastix ad.

Dynamic creative optimisation would allow us to match products to that specific dog. This meant small dogs would see ad for Dentastix products fitting their size, for example.

We would work with Go2Digital – the leading Croatian DOOH provider – and Google’s TensorFlow who would help us build a machine-learning tool to detect dogs.

Our activity would run over three key phases: test the technology, test the cost efficiency and finally a full-scale, national rollout to test sales impact.

We’d show that the best driver of Dentastix sales were dogs themselves!

THE WORLD’S FIRST PROGRAMMATIC DOOH CAMPAIGN BASED ON DOG DETECTION

We built a machine-learning algorithm that could identify dogs in live video, becoming the first brand in the world to run a programmatic campaign based on dog detection.

Our campaign rolled out in three stages:

First, we ran a network-wide test, selecting the best sites and times by scanning for dogs 24-hours a day.

Second, our first flight ran across 14 screens to prove that targeting dogs would result in a lowest-cost engaged attention of any channel.

Third, our national campaign tested sales impact. With TV, digital and OOH running nationally, we isolated one region for the roll-out of our Dogvertising algorithm. We also identified stores that could be surrounded by Dogvertising screens to investigate the impact of proximity.

In phases two and three, we added creative optimisation so every dog would see a fellow dog of a similar size.

29% INCREMENTAL SALES

The goal of our first flight was to prove that reaching pet parents result in a lowest-cost attention when compared with alternative channels. We smashed the competitive options – Dogvertising delivered a 34.4% lower cost for actively viewed ads by pet parents.

It also delivered a 13.5 second average viewing time by pet parents – four times higher than a similar Mars campaigns. Eye-tracking studies showed a CPM for an actively viewed ad by a pet parent of just $9.17 via DOOH, compared to $14.08 for TV.

Our second flight was designed to prove how reaching pet parents in perfect context delivered additional sales. Our robust regional testing showed that when all other factors were equal, Dogvertising delivered a 29% incremental sales uplift. And when we ran the activity near stores, we delivered a 106% year-on-year sales uplift.