Two adorable characters, Petey the dog and Bernadette the cat, share their world and their life with Australian pet owners. It’s branded entertainment at its most irresistible by Howatson+Company – a humorous insider understanding of the pet habits that owners live with. Work that enhances the bond between Petbarn and pet parents.

It’s the first work from Kate Blythe, chief customer officer of Greencross, the parent company of Greencross Vets, Petbarn, and City Farmers, whose previous roles include CMO at Mecca, Matches Fashion, and Net-a-Porter.

Blythe stated, “Brands that attract loyalty participate in culture, rather than interrupt it. We have a loved brand, and deeply recognisable characters. So we’ve built on that equity by creating the world we all imagine our pets live in. By ‘petsonifying’ our brand characters – Petey and Barnadette (derived from Petbarn) – we give voice to longing eyes, playful barks and sleepy cuddles. That’s where the magic is for Petbarn – to play an even more trusted, more present role, in the lives of pet parents.”

Chris Howatson, CEO, Howatson+Company, added, “For many years, a brand’s feed is where you scroll to feel and understand a brand. Yet as marketers we often bias paid channels when seeking customer connection. Like many brands, Petbarn’s feed was a blend of products, offers, and advice. So to reset the expectation we deleted the entire feed. But entertainingly, it wasn’t us in the social team, but Petey, the over-enthusiastic, if not a little rash, brand ambassador: ‘Uh oh. I think I might have accidentally deleted Petbarn’s entire Instagram account. Is this bad? I think this might be bad.’”

The playful social-first stunt sparked immediate, unprecedented engagement from both existing brand fans and new followers.

Blythe commented, “That first post had over 3,600 likes and organic reach of 6m. It was immediate evidence the strategy would work.”

What followed was a series of candid videos, bad mirror selfies, and unscripted character moments – establishing Petey and Barnadette not as static mascots, but as active creators.

Blythe continued, “The job then was to build this new universe everywhere. When we’re competing against entertainment, publishing is a daily endeavour with no room for inconsistency. We started internally across social, ecommerce, emails – emails now come from Petey and Barnadette – and stores. Our retail media was reshaped into Petey and Barnadette’s world. Then we prolifically integrated into campaigns.”

Howatson added, “The OOH holds some of my favourite executions. If a cat were creating an ad, how would she frame a shot? If a dog was the creative director, would he chew on the billboard before dispatching it? Kate has pushed the world at every step of the creative process. I deeply admire her craft of brand storytelling – honed from decades in fashion, an industry that, when at its best, is unrivalled in brand management.”

The production approach was critical to enabling the new world.

Blythe commented, “The Howatson team brought together the very best of traditional and emerging technologies to ensure there was no compromise between budget and outcome.”

Howatson explained, “We built a custom technical pipeline using 3D modelling, 2D animation, VFX, and custom generative AI tools. We’ve resourced it permanently to enable continuous, high-speed asset generation. And importantly, for a similar budget to previous years, we’ve created hundreds of bespoke assets rather than one or two.”

Credits:

Client: Greencross Vets
Chief Customer Officer: Kate Blythe
General Manager, Retail Marketing: Mark Richardson
Head of Retail and Integrated Marketing: Sumeena Parimu
Retail Marketing Manager: Faye Andrews
Creative Director: Kate Napier

Creative Agency: Howatson+Company
Chief Executive Officer: Chris Howatson
Executive Strategy Director: Georgia Pritchard
Group Business Director: Jaime Wright
Business Manager: Naomi Waters
Senior Business Director: Kerstin Allin
Business Director: Aoife Lehane
Chief Creative Officer: Gavin Chimes
Group Creative Directors: Chris Cheeseman & Simon Friedlander
Senior Creative: Maddy Semit
Creatives: William Loveder, Phoebe Gribble & Olive Jones-Evans

Voice of Petey: Daniel Connell @ A List Management
Voice of Barnadette: Amy Kersey @ Sophie Jermyn Management
Chief Production Officer: Holly Alexander
Executive Story Director: Paul Meates
Producer: Charlotte Breene
Head of Post Production: King Yong
Senior Editor & VFX Lead: Kyle Brandse
Senior Motion Designer & 3D Animator: Dave Sujono
Senior Motion Designer & 2D Animator: Steffie Yee
2D Animator (freelance): Josh Trotter
Senior Editor & Colourist: Fraser Kelton
Editor & Colourist: Justin O’Donnell
Head of Music and Sound: Shane Vancuylenberg
Composer & Sound Designer: Robbie Balatincz
Head of Design: Trent Michael
Design Director: Greg Beer
Senior Designer: Cory Lo
Designers: Harry Chambers & Henry Leng
Junior Designer: Phil Reyestan
Studio Lead: Simon Merrifield
Finished Artist and Designer: Patrick Rivera
Fashion Retoucher: Melanie Erler

General Manager, Media: James Turner
National Investment Director: Jamie Nelson
Media Manager: Alice Madden
Senior Media Executive: Nicholas Glass
Group PR & Influencer Director: Michael Rossiter
PR & Influencer Account Manager: Grace Powers
Senior PR Account Executive: Isla Watson
Senior Operations Manager: Lydia Askew