Anna Tompkins, Global Head of Marketing at Zuru’s pet division, Rhodes Pet Science has been wildly successful across the world and is the reason why she has been named a finalist at the 2024 YouTube NZ Marketing Awards.
Digital transformation
How have you integrated digital technology into your marketing campaigns to enhance audience engagement and campaign effectiveness?
Rhodes Pet Science recognises the limitless opportunities it has to connect with our core consumers through digital technology. We have successfully leveraged the digital fluency of our core demographics – millennials and Gen Z – and their desire to engage through social media, to forge meaningful connections with brands beyond the products.
Our brand, Bonkers, is a testament to our success. Bonkers shifted from mass broadcast to a mass personalisation approach, executing digital-anchored and data-informed marketing programmes around the world using our digital and social media channels to shine the spotlight on people’s hilarious and heartwarming pets interacting with our products. We found that, in today’s environment, humour is powerful – providing light relief with joyful and quirky pets was landing with our audience. Forging a strong brand association with feelgood content, with a digitally native audience who loves to share funny animal videos, gave the brand an edge. Bonkers quickly became TikTok’s most-liked pet treats brand globally.
Our team at Rhodes Pet Science continues to find innovative ways to embrace digital technology within its marketing campaigns. Rhodes is disrupting an industry driven by mass consumption and refocusing it on connection.
Sustainability
In what ways have you incorporated sustainability and eco-friendly practices into your marketing initiatives?
Our mission at Rhodes is to create a new generation of brands and products that are better for our pets, their people, and the planet. From pioneering innovation and sustainability with Smart Box, the world’s first sustainable health monitoring cat litter in a natural substrate, to setting new standards of transparency and authenticity with Goodlands, the sustainably sourced Dog and Cat food brand that connects consumers directly with the source of every ingredient, from farm to bowl. We have integrated our commitment to sustainability into the foundation of our brands wherever we can, and we harness our digital influence to empower our audience to contribute towards our shared sustainability efforts.
Creative Innovation
Creativity for impact is a big focus for oOh! and we strive to work with brands and clients to maximise their Out of Home campaigns. What are some of the most innovative and creative campaigns you have executed this year, and what are you most proud of?
Our team is tremendously proud of the “Better when it’s Bonkers” campaign for our pet treat brand, Bonkers. Launching this brand up against the big budgets of the category, the campaign needed to create a big splash with a small stone. We incorporated elements that bolstered brand awareness, increased social virality, and drove incrementality, establishing Bonkers as the most-liked pet treats brand on TikTok within one week (and still is!). Currently, Bonkers is the fastest-growing cat treat brand globally.
We pushed the scope of creativity recording the first ever jingle made BY pets, FOR pets. The music series features vocals by Mishka the Husky, while Alfie the Cat plays a miniature piano. Bonkers worked with a composer and recorded in a world-renowned recording studio in London. (A studio used by Elton John and Rihanna.) It was a lot of fun embracing the brand’s quirky personality and creating content that our audience loved to share.
The Marketer of the Year award is sponsored by oOh!Media. To read more about Tompkins answers, make sure to get your hands on the September-October NZ Marketing Magazine issue here.
