Pet food brand Pedigree has launched an app that will allow users to find their lost dogs with a click of the finger and a little help from the Google ad network.
The app called 'Pedigree Found' allows dog owners to pre-register their dog via the app and if a dog is lost, the owner can use the app to send out a real time, geo-targeted message to people in the vicinity, to help find it.
When an owner hits “lost” on the app, a pre-registered ‘lost dog’ advertisement featuring their dog is created and instantly served across the Google display network on desktop within a 2.5km radius of the owner. A push notification is also sent via the app to other owners have who signed up.
Roberta Macdonald, head of creative agency engagement for Google Australia and New Zealand, told AdNews that the project is the first of its kind using this technology globally and was derived from looking at the common problem of lost dogs rather than looking for innovative tech straight off the bat. The project will initially be tested in New Zealand and is likely to roll out elsewhere.
“One of the challenges Pedigree had, putting pets at the centre of everything they do, is the age old problem if your pet gets lost and you have to put up a lost dog poster. So what we did was we partnered with Colenso BBDO and Pedigree to try and use technology and mobile to try and solve that problem,” Macdonald said.
Macdonald said that the idea has been in the works since September last year.
“We didn't start with the technology we started with the problem, that's where we like to start with our partnerships. Then we came up with the technical solution post that.”
While the service will be available on desktop as well as mobile, Macdonald explained that this solution was always designed as a mobile first one.
“We really wanted mobile to be the solution, when you think about when a dog goes missing the mobile is usually the closet thing that's in the vicinity of the pet owner, so we were trying to creature a solution for that, using mobile as the mechanism for delivery,” she said.
Watch the video below explaining the app below:
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