Ivan Pavlov would be proud to watch this commercial.
In a recent TV advertisement (seen above) by Nestlé Purina, sound is used to make a direct pitch to dogs. This might seem counter intuitive because dogs don’t buy food. But, in the highly competitive market of pet food it’s a smart way to break through the clutter.
Because pet owners are reluctant to change brands once they find one that works it’s a challenge to get people to convert. The idea here is to get dogs to react to the commercial. In doing so the pet owners may subconsciously remember that when the purchase Fido’s dinner.
To attract the target animal the commercial uses sounds that only dogs can hear. The Beneful ad features a “squeak” that is similar to the sound of a dog toy, a high-frequency tone, similar to a dog whistle, which humans can barely hear, and a soft, high-pitched “ping” which can be heard by dogs and people.
So far the commercial has only been displayed in Germany and is soon to hit Austria. However, according to the Toronto Star Nestlé Purina has no plans to launch the commercial in Canada this year but it may consider it in 2012.
Does this mean audio branding is for dogs too?