PETCO ProtestorsIn our fifth year as agency of record for Petco, they hired their third new marketing director.  As is usually the case with the new guy in power, he was determined to put his stamp on the advertising.  So, even though our campaign was helping Petco set retail sales records, we began searching for the next incarnation of our “Petco, where the pets go” campaign.

My partner, Mark Johnson, hit on an idea to get more competitive and go directly up against supermarkets.  While PetSmart was our direct competitor in the category, it didn’t make sense to compete directly with them for several reasons.  First, research showed that they outperformed Petco in almost every category from service, to selection to value.  And second, PetSmart, with about $2 billion in sales, owned about 10% of the $22 billion pet retail business, while supermarkets commanded more than 80%.

Supermarkets dominated the pet business for a simple reason.  Convenience.  If pet owners were in the supermarket buying their milk, macaroni and muesli, all they had to do was walk over to aisle six and buy their pet food and pet supplies.  Why bother driving the extra mile to Petco?  No reason…unless you were a passionate pet lover who cared a lot about the health and well being of your pet.

Our research showed that a good percentage of supermarket shoppers were what we called “pet pamperers.”  People who were madly in love with their pets, thought of them as members of the family, and would do anything for them – including drive an extra mile and spend an extra few dollars to keep them happy and healthy.   If we could attract just a small percentage of these pet pamperers to Petco, it would have a dramatic impact on our sales.  Based on this thinking, we set out to create a disruptive TV campaign that would get our target to rethink their shopping habits.

To kick off the campaign in dramatic fashion, we created a launch spot called “Protestors.”  In this spot, a man and his dog arrive at a supermarket parking lot.  He pats the dog on the head and gets out of the car to do his supermarket shopping.  After he leaves, the dog jumps up on the hood of the car and barks.  Now, we see more dogs and cats jumping on the hoods and roofs of their owners’ cars.  And then we see birds and reptiles doing the same thing.  Some carry protest signs with the Petco name on them.

Now, there are hundreds of pets all over the parking lot and…I’ll stop here, because I want to describe how I presented this idea to Petco’s management.  It was  one of my biggest presentation challenges.

All of the biggies from Petco were in the room including the president.   I got up out of my chair, fully rehearsed and ready to present the storyboard in the predictable, rational way, pointing to pictures and describing the scene.  That’s when  I realized this disruptive idea needed a far more disruptive presentation to bring it to life.

Without thinking, I leaped up onto my  chair, hovering over the surprised group of Petco fatcats (no pun intended.)  Then I barked like a dog.  Woof!  Then, I somehow made the sound of two dogs barking.  “Woofwoof woofwoof. ” Then I voiced the sound of four dogs and two cats, “Meow, meow, woof…” and I added a bird, “Caw Caw.”  I was using my voice to bring to life the sound of a crowd of protesting animals.  Then, I built the sounds into a  loud  chant, and began  to morph the animal sounds into a human word:  “Woof woofco meowco meowco caw woofmeowco petco petco Petco…Petco” louder and louder until it became a thundering chant “PETCO, PETCO, PETCO!”

Then I stopped, the room went silent, and I delivered our new competitive theme line:  “Supermarkets are for people.  Petco is for pets.  Petco, where the pets go.”

The room erupted in applause and I stood there soaking it all in…perhaps a bit too long?  I totally forgot that I was still standing on my chair looking down on them all.  Finally, the president of Petco said, “I’ve got a 3 o’ clock, can we move on, now?”

I jumped off the chair and scampered out of the room like a good little doggie.

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