PEDIGREE’s brand purpose is to end dog homelessness by 2050. Adoptable uses bleeding edge technology to supercharge that ambition. Now, instead of making ads about adoption, every ad PEDIGREE makes is adoptable. Adoptable targets the right shelter dogs to the right people, allowing them to connect directly via a QR code embedded into every ad. Soon, whenever you see a digital ad from PEDIGREE, you’ll know the dog you’re looking at is available for adoption near you.

New Zealand is a nation of dog lovers, yet the number of dogs in shelters continues to grow.

In 2008, the PEDIGREE Foundation was established by Mars Petcare & PEDIGREE to drive dog adoption. Since then, they have made it their goal to end pet homelessness by 2050, ensuring every dog finds their forever home.

However dog homelessness has continued to grow, with 12 million dogs currently sitting and waiting in shelters around the world.

With a problem so huge, making another ad about adoption wasn’t enough. Instead, we made every ad Adoptable.

Every ad PEDIGREE makes around the world has one universal similarity. It always features a dog in it. We wondered, what if that dog could be adoptable. Partnering with Nexus Studios, we’ve developed a bespoke AI system that can transform a single image of a shelter dog into studio quality photography. This 'glow up' image is then mapped to a CGI rig, allowing the photo-real double to be positioned in any pose to suit any piece of PEDIGREE creative.

From main meal, treat and retail ads, every dog we feature can now be a real shelter dog who needs a home.

Adoptable places local shelter dogs into the ads you see, and when that dog is adopted it’s instantly dropped out of media rotation. The Adoptable initiative supercharges our brand purpose. Now every dollar spent on media doesn’t just take our products to the world, it takes shelter dogs, too.

At PEDIGREE, we love all dogs. But the ones who need our love the most are the underdogs - the millions of dogs in shelters across the world. These adoptable dogs all have the potential to bring joy and happiness into a new loving home. But first they need to be seen.

Right now, helping them get the visibility they need is a manual process, which often falls upon the animal shelters who are already overwhelmed.

As the world’s largest pet food company, what if we could use our extensive media reach to get shelter dogs seen by the world. Turning every media dollar we spend into a dollar towards our purpose. Using bespoke AI, we as PEDIGREE can help to give these dogs the stage they deserve, at a scale that until now was simply not feasible.

Adoptable was launched in New Zealand, partnering with local shelters to showcase real adoptable dogs as the stars of our campaign. Their photo-real outputs were used across adoption, retail, main meal and treat messaging.

Using geographic and 1PD data such as proximity to parks or average household size, the shelter dogs were shown in media placements with proximity to their shelter but also suitability to audience and area.

Audience data was also used to create dynamic copy with specific messaging relating to location, time of day and interests of the consumer. For example, commuters on at the end of the day say digital posters featuring a shelter dog with the headline, “Going home? Can I come?”. Each ad’s QR code took the viewer to a personalised landing page where they could learn more about the dog they just saw, and arrange to meet them.

Our objective is to get shelter dogs adopted. But before they can be adopted, they need to be seen.

Adoptable has already proven that showing shelter dogs in their best light gives them a better chance of adoption.

We’ve seen a significant uplift in the likelihood of adoption for dogs who have featured in an Adoptable asset, versus their original picture taken by a shelter.

Shelter site visits: 6x increase in traffic and profile views for featured dogs

4.5 x longer dwell time on the dog’s profile once on the site

50% of featured dogs adopted in first two weeks

12% more likely to adopt when the adopter comes into the shelter site via an Adoptable asset

PEDIGREE’s brand purpose is to find every dog a loving home. For the past 15 years they’ve created campaigns in service of this purpose.

However, purpose-led advertising only accounts for 25% of PEDIGREE’s global media spend. Adoptable changes that. Soon, that number can be 100%, putting purpose at the heart of every piece of digital creative PEDIGREE makes.

Across 73 markets PEDIGREE are aiming to make every touchpoint of the brand feature an adoptable dog by 2026, with film/moving image currently in development.