Our Work

Lovebug – Bringing insect cat food to market

CHALLENGE:

Launch a new brand into a competitive market from a base of zero. Specifically an insect based cat food brand, one of the first of its kind. 

We needed to generate insight, build a brand narrative, launch the product to market, grow brand awareness and consideration, to ultimately drive sales. 

Our initial challenge was the polarised reception of the concept of eating bugs with some communities, and crafting a narrative around the brand which was created by the pet care experts, Mars Petcare, and supported by sustainability entrepreneurs, Futerra.

SOLUTION:

We devised a 360 integrated comms strategy (along with integration of broader marketing activity such as social, digital, community engagement, all the way to CRM) to bring Lovebug to market and tackle head on questions that were on the minds of consumers.

We “leaned in ” to the debate around eating bugs, leveraging this insight when engaging with media to tackle the “YUK” factor. We heroed our bugs, positioning Lovebug as a real pet-food breakthrough; a way for pet parents to lower their environmental pawprint.

RESULTS

We drove conversations with the media around the innovation of insect based food and the sustainability benefits of making this transition for your cat, creating debate around why insects should be used for food, across over 70 outlets such as BBC News, Guardian, Financial Times, The Independant, Daily Mail, Daily Express and Washington Post. Our engagement with influencers and cat communities to test and trial the product, built brand trust and love, seeing us seed over 15,000 samples. 

All of the activity directly drove sales and brand awareness, to the point where The Grocer named Lovebug the Top Petcare Launch of 2021.

IMPACT

Lovebug has become a hero product in the Mars Petcare portfolio. The brand has become part of the movement driving change when it comes to our eating habits, championing bugs as a viable source of protein.