Howatson+Company has revealed a new brand platform for Petbarn that sees the world through the eyes of our pets. 

‘Pets love Petbarn’ is being rolled out across every part of the business and has launched with a series of commercials that humanise its number one customer – domesticated animals.

From pets talking price matches, to a dog ashamed of its smelly breath and a guinea pig that struggles with pronunciation, the ads breathe new life into Petbarn’s brand icons, giving them unique and adult personalities. 

Howatson+Company enlisted Australian comedians Sam Simmons and Michelle Brasier to voice the characters with Petbarn’s characteristically quirky sensibility.

The marketing power of fur babies

Pet brands love to anthropomorphise pets. 

Earlier this year, Ivory Coat released an ad featuring a very fit man clearing hurdles on an athletics track. While he runs, a voiceover explains the optimal nutrition needed for peak performance. 

“That’s why, if I was a dog, I’d eat Ivory Coat,” the fit man concludes.

The twist subverts audience expectations. It injects a bit of humour into a potentially very boring product that pet owners could neglect to be discerning about. As a marketing tactic, humanisation encourages pet parents to relate more to their fur babies and therefore invest more money in their well-being. 

The ‘Pets Love Petbarn’ platform

Walking into Petbarn, designed to be a “mecca for pets”, the experience really does feel geared towards furry customers. They get a treat on arrival and can follow their noses around the store, yanking on their leash with the pressure of a child desperate for their parents to buy them a toy.

“There are three fundamental truths that make Petbarn unique: pet parents love what we do for them and their pets, our staff are absolutely passionate about pets, and we know that pets simply love Petbarn,” says Petbarn’s chief customer officer Nick Adams.

“Our new ‘Pets Love Petbarn’ platform is more than an advertising campaign, it is the organising idea that brings our entire business together.” 

‘Pets love Petbarn’ will be embedded across all customer, retail and advertising channels and even forms the basis of team recruitment.