Cats own the internet, but just because they're everywhere doesn't mean it's too noisy a space for brands to play in. Clemenger BBDO Sydney creative directors Luke Hawkins and Ben Smith said when the agency was building the latest digitally focused campaign for cat food brand, Whiskas, they knew that with the right idea “we could cut through the clutter, and get to that big audience”.
“The brief was a pretty broad one to be honest,” Hawkins told AdNews. “The client just wanted us to help demonstrate its caregiver credentials and wanted to do it in an interesting, innovative, cut-through kind of way.”
“They asked for social to be at the core as well,” Smith added. “That sort of steered us in the direction of digital.”
The campaign the agency came up with was to launch the Whiskas Catstacam device, which allows cats to take photos from their point of view and post them directly to their own Instagram accounts. Using the hashtag, #AskWhiskas, users can then ask a cat behaviour expert to decode what the cat is doing.
While Hawkins and Smith have heard of other campaigns which used cameras and pets, there are a few elements that they said are unique.
“We all know the internet’s obsession with cats, particularly on Instgram and we thought: 'how can we crack this platform in a really interesting new way?',” Hawkins said.
“Yes, there is a lot of content out there, but that's because the audience is there. We knew that with the right idea we could cut through the clutter and get to that big audience.”
He said that given that Facebook and Twitter are more established forms of social media, advertisers tend to be drawn to them over Instagram.
“We felt that Instagram was a really good opportunity: we haven't seen a whole lot of great work using that platform in advertising and marketing,” Hawkins said.
“It's sort of new territory and it's a little bit trickier to figure out - but that's what makes it exciting as well.
“It's good to be one of the first brands to use the platform in an interesting way, but I think, as time goes on, we'll start to see more and more Instagram-centred campaigns.”
The other unique element is the tech. Smith described building the device that takes the images as “hacking a smartwatch”, given that it requires very little human interaction for the images to go online.
He said the device takes a photo every 20 seconds and is triggered by motion-detector technology, going through a quick quality check before appearing online.
The first phase of the campaign launched this week and will continue for the next month. Another stage is in the works, but there are no television plans at this stage, with the campaign to remain digitally focused.
While the campaign doesn't have “viral” as a benchmark, both creatives agree the aim is to get people talking.
“Cats have got this kind of viral natural to them, so Instagram is a good platform to leverage that,” Smith said. “The main thing you want is to be picked up in culture somewhere and be talked about.”
Hawkins added: “It will do its job if people use the hashtag, ask questions of the expert and learn. If the internet picks it up – and it looks like it's gathering momentum already – that is a bonus, but we don’t necessarily hope that it goes viral. We just know that it's a really good audience to tap into.”
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