The “Doggy Play Pals” campaign for Librela is relevant for Digital Craft because it uses a cinematic style and computer-generated animated characters to tell the story of Scout, a dog living with osteoarthritis pain (OA). Each character—a rope-limbed monkey, a floppy-eared elephant, and a rubber bear—was developed with frays, scratches, and worn areas to show how much Scout loved playing with them before his pain. A cinematic approach using light and shadows gave the broadcast and social ads an emotional tone; careful voice acting added to their personalities; and a custom score added to the whimsical feel of the toys coming to life.

After learnings from research, it was clear that dog owners in the Unites States needed education on the real impact of OA pain on a dog’s quality of life. Owners and dogs bond over play, but OA pain prevents dogs from wanting to play like they used to--which can negatively impact the owner-dog relationship.. With that knowledge, we explored the idea of looking at OA pain from the perspective of the dog’s toys. How would they feel if their best friend wasn’t playing with them anymore? How would they feel if their dog suddenly was back to their old self? The idea performed really well in testing with dog owners, because they were able to understand just how much OA pain affects their dogs and that, with the help of Librela, they can get them back to more days of play.

Anyone who owns a dog knows that active dogs are happy dogs. But dogs with OA pain have trouble doing the activities that they always loved like running, playing, jumping, and walking.

Some dog owners may chalk it up to their dog aging, not suspecting that they may be in constant pain. And when dogs are diagnosed with OA pain, they’ve typically been prescribed NSAIDs that need to be dosed every day to provide relief. That means a missed dose is a missed day of dogs and their owners doing what makes them happiest together.

That’s where Librela is different. It’s the first and only monoclonal antibody that provides long-lasting OA pain relief with a once-a-month injection given by a veterinary professional.

Our objectives were to educate dog owners about OA pain and to help them see Librela as the solution to giving them more days of play.

The “Doggy Play Pals” campaign features a dog named Scout who’s not acting like his playful self

because of OA pain. Scout’s favorite toys—a monkey, an elephant, and a bear—magically come to life and wonder why their best friend isn’t interested in playing with them anymore. The elephant, the wisest toy, tells his friends that OA pain is the reason, and

that long-lasting Librela can help. Some time after getting his Librela injection, Scout hurries home to get back to his buddies, who are elated that their best friend is back to his old self. 

The 3 animated characters were created with the help of an animation studio. Each element of the characters’ personalities were carefully decided on through several rounds of collaboration across the studio, our agency, and our clients. We painstakingly went frame by frame to ensure that the characters acted in similar ways to the animals they were modeled after, while also seamlessly incorporating them into the real environments in which they were shot. Film techniques were used to move real-world elements the toys interacted with to make the scenes appear completely realistic. The campaign was featured on broadcast TV and social media.