It’s natural for new owners to have anxieties – worrying if their pets are happy or getting the right food. Finding information you can trust can be tricky – you have to dig around; it can be contradictory; and it’s hard to tell what’s reliable.

We showed newbie owners that, with VIP club, they can be the best pet parents – ever. It was all about letting them know they’ll have a trusted friend – the kind with the best advice.

Rigorous research told us that 18 to 34 year olds were happy to spend the most on their pets. We then used our Meaningful Brands approach to understand these soon-to-be pet owners and to sniff out: 1) the channels they’d use to do research; 2) what influenced their decisions; and 3) the biggest causes of anxiety in the first weeks of their pet’s arrival.

That helped us map out a menagerie of brand touchpoints. But, because pets’ needs change fast, there was no time to paws! So we planned timely, tailored exclusive offers and expert tips for the ongoing CRM journey too.

We hooked owners to join VIP club by positioning it as a single source of consistent, reliable new-pet information. We launched ads in The Sun, Daily Express and Daily Mail, plus on Heart radio. And we made it easy to discover our new-pet tips and advice through search-optimised content, a Guardian online partnership, as well as digital display ads to educate and inspire. While over on social, we put out a targeted video campaign.

All these angles took owners to a bespoke campaign microsite, where they’d find extra info and helpful ideas and could sign up to become a VIP club member.

It’s a campaign that certainly got owners’ tails a-wagging!