It was important to raise awareness of PetSmart’s new position to both existing customers as well as new ones. For those unfamiliar with the brand, sending the piece was a great way to introduce who PetSmart was and what they stood for. And for existing customers, it was a way to reinforce a voice that may have not been as forthright as before. The campaign was a great way for the client and target audience to sniff, and re-sniff, each others’ butts and say, “Hey, let’s be friends.”

PetSmart is the largest pet retailer in the United States. This year, we relaunched the brand with a new campaign called “Partners in Pethood.” Geared toward passionate pet owners called “Pet Parents” (yes, that’s a thing), every aspect of our advertising showed that we were their partner down to the tiniest and sometimes stinkiest detail.

For our direct mail campaign, we created a dimensional mailer that proved PetSmart was your partner for the good, the bad and well, the shitty. We custom-printed poop bags with our Pethood story and mailed them out to our most passionate customers and influencers.

The goal was not to sell anything. There was no promotion attached. This was a pure brand execution. We wanted to put our campaign in the hands of our customers...and then those hands could use our ad to pick up their dog’s poop. Because that’s partnership.

Dogs poop a lot and often in the most inopportune places. Creating a custom direct mail piece printed on a poop bag almost guaranteed that our customers would not just read our direct mail execution, but ultimately take it with them for later use. It also played right into our strategy of partnership because, let’s face it, if a brand is willing to help you pick up poop, they’ll be willing to help you with anything. And PetSmart delivers on that promise.

Our Partners in Pethood campaign launched during the Academy Awards, and in the following weeks, we sent our direct mail poop bags targeting existing loyal customers (through our loyalty program), pet influencers (yes, that’s a thing), as well as potential customers in key markets.

First, PetSmart is a privately held company and does not release marketing, sales or traffic numbers to the public. That makes this section harder to judge, we know. What we are allowed to include is that both traffic and sales numbers saw positive results following the launch of our campaign and direct mail effort. Our poop bags were shared on social media (yes, people actually shared a direct mail piece online).

But most importantly, positive brand perception rose 64% online and in social media. Our passionate pet parents were talking about the campaign and were connecting with our Pethood message.

While Americans love their pets, they are indifferent to pet retailers. Our research found that customers often couldn't remember which pet retailer they last shopped. The challenge for the campaign and this direct mail piece was to make an emotional connection to pet owners and distinguish PetSmart from their similar competitors. Our strategy was to surprise our customers with a dimensional direct mail piece that they could then use when their dog left them a smelly surprise. That would pay off our Partner in Pethood message and stand out from the rest of the shitty direct mail they typically receive.