Kitten Kollege
Whiskas Kitten
Issue 39 | June 2016
Agency
AMV BBDO
Creative Team
Executive Creative Directors Alex Grieve Adrian Rossi Copywriter Rob Messeter Art Director Mike Crowe
Production Team
Agency Producers Selina Dey Edwina Dennison Production Company College Humor
Other Credits
Account Managers Oliver Clark Rich Moloney Chris Cannell Ben Blackall Planners Ila De Mello Kamath Niamh Power Media Planner Matt Delaney
Date
October 2015
Background
Mars-owned Whiskas was the leading cat care brand but, surprisingly, had little online presence. It risked losing ground to competing brands with a more defined digital offering.
But if there's one thing the online world isn't short of, it's cat-related content. Anything Whiskas did online had to be different, good and funny.
Idea
One target objective for Whiskas was to raise the profile of its kitten food. A common misconception existed among kitten owners: they thought that kittens were grown-up at six months. In fact, they need to be served kitten food for 12 months.
To help educate them, Kitten Kollege was created. An institute of feline education with a rich history, the kollege was where kittens went to learn about life. In partnership with Google and production company College Humour, 21 branded content films were made to introduce cat fans and owners to the departments, student body and syllabus of Kitten Kollege.
Each film was presented, tongue-in-cheek, by the Dean, who showed viewers the kollege, where they could see kittens learning 'string theory' and literature, featuring novels like Cat 22.
Results
The campaign had a reach of 37m people and achieved cumulative views of 4.3m and a total number of minutes watched of 4.6m.
Average view duration across the first three episodes was between 76% and 94%, versus a Google benchmark of 40%. View-through rates varied between 16% to 19%, also beating the benchmark.
Our Thoughts
Well, we're a bit surprised at Whiskas' admission that it has been too slow to get online. Given the preponderance of cat-related content online, the bar for Whiskas was high. Whatever it produced had to be exceptionally good, and funny – but in a Whiskas way, rather than just more goofy cat videos.
That it succeeds has a lot do with the writing, and you can just feel the fun the creatives had with the jokes, some visual, some using word-play, all of them gentle and subtle.
The sell message is woven in low-profile and, via scenes such as litter training, neutering and drinking, Whiskas reinforces its position as a brand that understands cats.