You can be one of the most loved, admired or celebrated people in the world. Your cat doesn’t care. It may well ignore you anyway. One of the most common questions cat owners ask Google is: “Does my cat love me?” However much we idolise our feline companions, we don’t always get that love back.

The campaign by AMV BBDO for Mars brand, Sheba, is helping cat parents turn this around, moving a little feline indifference into something closer to adoration.

The new SHEBA Ignored to Adored programme promises to help cat parents win even their most aloof cats’ adoration with premium SHEBA cat food in just days, backed by a money-back guarantee. It’s designed to encourage more regular feeding of SHEBA brand products helping turn occasional buyers into loyal ones, while giving cat parents a reason to keep the love going.  

AMV BBDO developed the programme in partnership with the Waltham Petcare Science Institute (Mars Petcare’s leading science centre for pet health and nutrition) after research showed more than half of cat parents in the UK, France and the US have questioned their cat’s love for them. 

The social and earned first campaign, covering the US, UK, Germany, France, Spain, Poland, India, Thailand, Australia, and developed in partnership with Weber Shandwick, is built around the painful truth that even some of the most loved people in society, from paramedics, nurses and firefighters to world-famous entertainers and sports stars, still struggle to get their cats to love them back. That is, until they try the Ignored to Adored programme to at last be rewarded with the affection they deserve. It features fun, relatable content, inspired by the realities of life with a cat in social feeds, in-stores, and beyond.

Celebrities in the campaign include Hollywood actress, Haley Lu Richardson, known for The White Lotus, Ponies and films including Five Feet Apart, and her cat Darbin; British singer-songwriter, Cat Burns, who may have won over millions of fans on BBC One’s The Celebrity Traitors but still isn’t convinced she’s won over her cat, Ollie; Bollywood actress, Sharvari, adored by fans and celebrated on screen, but facing exactly the same challenge when it comes to impressing her cat; Olympic gold medallist, Ilia Malinin has the same problem, whose viral backflip on ice skates captured attention around the world earned him no extra affection at home. He even gifted his gold medal to his rescue cat, Mysti, and was still met with total indifference.

And it’s not just celebrities. Runner, Aaron Beggs, went viral after sacrificing his own personal best to help an exhausted competitor at the Boston Marathon, an act of heroism that, as far as his cat is concerned, apparently counts for very little. He’s joined by many more everyday heroes whose extraordinary achievements have impressed everyone except the one audience that matters most – their cats.

Anna Szpot, global campaign lead, stated, “At SHEBA, we know that cat parents will go to great lengths to feel more connected to their felines, even if that means speaking to them or mimicking their behaviour. IGNORED TO ADORED connects with what we know about both cat and human behaviour to celebrate this unique bond.” 

Andre Sallowicz, ECD, at AMV BBDO, added, “We identified the real challenge as frequency. Cats love SHEBA, but their owners don’t buy it often enough. So instead of telling cat owners how good the product is, we gave them a reason to buy it more often. Because when you give cats what they want every day, you don’t just change their food, you change how they feel about you.” 

Credits 

Agency: AMV BBDO 
AMV Group CEO: Xavier Rees 
Chief Client & Business Officer: Katy Wright 
Chief Strategy Officer: Jo Arden 
Deputy Chief Strategy Officer: Ben Jaffe  
Creative Director: Andre Sallowicz  
Senior Creatives: Hetu Negri, Juan Peirano
Global Business Lead: Richard Mitchell  
Senior Account Director: Jake Gidley 
Account Manager: Niamh McCafferty 
Strategy Partner: Suzanne Barker 
Strategy Director: Kerry Boyes 
Senior Strategist:  Brian Williamson 
Freelance Creative Team: Fiona White, Thomas Farrall

Production Company: Omnicom Productions
Agency Producer: Alexander Warren  
Editor: Kit Jennings 
Social Lead: Avalon Cole
Social Media Manager: Chelsea Louza
Video Editor: Sam Bottenberg

Client: MARS [Sheba]
CMO, Senior VP Marketing, NA: Mindy Barry
Global Campaign Lead: Anna Szpot