A killer awareness campaign.
That’s what Elanco came to Organic to create. But in the crowded and low-interest parasite protection category, breaking through to pet owners can be a tough case to crack.
The new campaign needed to drive awareness of the Advantage family of flea and tick products while bringing multiple brands together cohesively. Previously, Elanco had marketed the brands separately with their own branding, campaigns, assets and key messages.
To help Elanco achieve this, Organic needed to connect with pet owners on social media on a different level than the standard clichés of the animal health space.
Pet parasite protection is about murder. Flea, tick and mosquito murder, that is.
That’s why Organic created the “Welcome to the Family” campaign, which draws on the surge of interest in true crime. It positioned the portfolio as a fierce, parasite-fighting family, respected in the industry for decades.
We targeted cat and dog owners with paid social ads on Instagram, Facebook and YouTube. Videos, posts and stories stood out from other pet content on their feeds — with cold-blooded headlines and a distinctive illustration style inspired by mafia, film noir and comic-book tropes.
The goal? To break through the cuddly white noise of pet protection advertising. Forget the typical ads with happy pets and owners, buried in feature-heavy messaging. Our brands held a “flea funeral” and made back-room deals with a mob boss.
Embracing true crime storylines proved a solid strategy, as over half of Americans say they enjoy the genre (according to a YouGov survey). And with social media being the go-to way to engage with this kind of content, Advantage platforms were well-positioned to reach our target audience.
The team overcame a significant challenge, as Elanco had previously marketed its Advantage products separately, with their own branding, campaigns, assets and key messages. To bring the brands together cohesively, Organic maintained established brand characters, colors and codes, while reimagining them in a new context and true crime storyline.
“Welcome to the Family” creative has exceeded 2.5 billion views on social media — the highest an Elanco campaign has ever recorded.
Clickthrough rates have increased 65% year-over-year.
Landing page visitors have spent 40% longer on site versus previous campaigns.
The campaign garnered media attention on AdWeek’s Wednesday Stir and won a gold VETTY award — recognizing marketing excellence in the animal health care industry.
