Petbarn is ‘Putting More Care in Pet Care’ with new brand positioning from WiTH Collective

WiTH Collective, Linked by Isobar, has launched a new brand campaign for Petbarn, their first piece of work for the pet retailer after winning the account in a competitive pitch.

‘Putting More Care in Pet Care’ is a new brand positioning that forms the foundation of a creative campaign but will also permeate the entire Petbarn business, providing a north star for both a consumer and employee audience.

Petbarn provides the best possible combination of knowledge, product range expert advice and passion for pets, and the resulting creative campaign demonstrates this by showcasing a series of real Australian pet parents, their unique relationships with their pets and their unspoken promise to give their pets the very best they can.

Tania Whyte, Petbarn’s CCO says, “We’ve done an incredible amount of work over multiple years to re-shape our business around the proposition of care. While price is important to customers, we know owners also truly value giving great care to their pet. Great care also strengthens the owner-pet bond. The idea of ‘Putting More Care in Pet Care’ surfaces the emotional reality in a category that has recently focused marketing messages on price and convenience. This moves us beyond a typical retail campaign to instead provide customers with a clear brand promise, and simultaneously recognises and celebrates the journey that the Petbarn business is on.”

Drawing on WiTH Collective’s full-service offering, the campaign covers Brand, Customer, Retail, Content and Social via a campaign encompassing TVC, OOH, one-to-one comms, Social & In-store POS, as well as employee internal launch comms.

Steve Coll, WiTH Collective’s Chief Creative Officer says, “We gave cameras to families and asked them to shoot the unique bond they enjoyed with their pets. As a result, we captured authentic individual moments that couldn’t be scripted or acted. However, the message within the Brand is universal - whether you own a mastiff or a goldfish. As a pet owner, each of us makes an unspoken promise to provide the best care we can. Petbarn promises to help us keep that pledge. It’s a simple statement that will generate greater affinity between the brand and pet owners. And Petbarn has brought ‘more care’ to life in everything from training their store-staff in nutrition, to grooming services, carefully selected product lines, great advice from vets on the ground and more.”

Justin Hind, WiTH Collective CEO said, “We see this as just the beginning of a new proposition for Petbarn and their customers. As part of our commitment to data, we’ll take every opportunity to interact with owners, and the insight we gain from every interaction will help shape the next. It’s been wonderful working with the committed team at Petbarn, and equally exciting to be part of an ongoing ambition to bring more care to pet care.”

Sumeena Parimu, GM Marketing of Petbarn, says “We knew immediately that this platform would resonate with pet parents, and our initial research as proven this to be a highly engaging proposition. Everyone has their favourite pet moment in the campaign. It feels right that pet owners and their pets should be front and center in our communications in such an authentic way. WiTH have done a great job leading the brand strategy and digital comms while the Landor team has brought dynamism, real fun and freshness to our brand identity. We believe the combination is powerful and will help our distinctive offering to really stand out.”

The campaign launches on February 11th. You can view the TVC here.

Campaign Credits
Chief Creative Officer – Steve Coll
Creative Director – Nicole Hetherington
Creative Director – Simon Fowler
Senior Art Director – Will Winter-Irving
Senior Copywriter – Patrick Anderson
Producer – Georgina Moxey
Senior Account Director – Yvette Gordony
Account Manager – Olivia Wakefield
Production – Versus
Branding Agency – Landor
Retail Strategy and Consultancy – Retail Oasis

For further information contact
Rebecca Mitchell
Strategic Communications Lead, Dentsu Aegis
M +61 455 517 807 | E rebecca.mitchell@dentsuaegis.com 

About Dentsu Aegis Network
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