In the US, SHEBA® is a new entrant brand of cat food. With a premium price tag, limited budgets and almost no brand recognition, growth is reliant on challenger behaviours; where ambition exceeds resources. Experiences which offer mutual value to Cat Parents are the ticket to earning trust and a disproportionate share of attention. Whilst the irreverence of the brand platform has lent itself well to traditional storytelling environments, stories alone were not going to do the job. We needed to behave like a challenger and find a new way to bring our brand to life in the real world with genuinely valuable customer experiences.

Objectives

1. Find a distinctive opportunity to bring our brand platform to life in the real world

2. Earn our place with Cat Parents by providing them with genuinely valuable content

We started a social listening exercise and uncovered an emerging conversation: people sharing their cat’s tendency to wake up at 4am. This happens because cats are crepuscular animals, preferring to eat and play at dawn and dusk.

But no matter how charming a cat might be, sleep is not something we should have to sacrifice.

With 1 in 3 people turning to their phone when they are awake in the middle of the night to scroll social feeds, we knew the exact place to reach our tired Cat Parents.

We created SHEBA 4AM ADZZZ. An ad campaign designed to put you to sleep.

We partnered with sleep scientists and turned phones from sleep destroying villains into sleep-inducing Heroes. At 4am, we reached sleepless cat parents with a 5-hour sleep-inducing film, a lullaby album, a sleep-inducing podcast, a Twitch stream and cat influencer posts.

With a premium-priced, luxury product, we knew SHEBA® would benefit from enhanced cat- owner relationships as strong bonds drive category premiumisation. But we knew the 4am feline alarm clock was a point of contention standing in the way.

No matter how charming a cat might be, sleep is not something Cat Parent’s should have to sacrifice. Research has shown that pet owners are 60% more likely to have problems with their sleep satisfaction and our social listening illuminated that Cat Parents were fed up. With countless calls for help, they were frustrated with their feline’s crepuscular behaviour.

Whilst we couldn’t change cat’s natural instincts, we knew that if SHEBA® could help ease the 4am pain, then we’d win the hearts of Cat Parents and enhance the cat-owner relationship too. It was the perfect mutual value opportunity we’d been looking for.

The aim of the campaign was to help people, looking at their smartphones in the early hours of the morning, to get back to sleep.

In collaboration with a Behavioural Sleep Therapist and a Sleep Physician, we leveraged the latest scientific research to create an effective sleep-inducing ad campaign. The hero advert uses a combination of proven sleep therapy techniques – including body scans, ASMR, calm visual effects, meditation and soothing colours.

Through a mobile first social plan, we stopped scrollers in their tracks and provided a way back to the land of nod. With influencers, a credible media partner, paid ads served between 3-5am and personalised pre-roll messages of encouragement, we intercepted tired parents and led them to our sleep solutions.

With $500k, the campaign (19th April 3rd May 2021), reached cat owners all over the USA particularly places where cat ownership was high, and sleep health was low.

The sleep-inducing film at the heart of the experience received over 8 million views and amassed over 12,000 watched hours in the first 4 days. Amazingly, 84% of these views took place around 4 am. It was clear SHEBA® were adding real value to Cat Parents lives as this dwell time with the brand would be unimaginable with a traditional ad campaign.

Importantly though, this resulted in a tangible impact on the brand with a 3.85% increase in Brand Awareness and a 100% lift in Ad Recall – far exceeding Google’s 53%-61% dynamic benchmark.

4AM ADDZZZ also helped SHEBA® to earn a disproportionate share of Cat Parent’s attention. With 168 placements and 20.4 million earned impressions from PR, the culturally resonant customer experience struck the right chord with media.

The campaign shows that brand growth can also add real value to people’s lives.