Petnovations, the manufacturer of self-cleaning litter box CatGenie, is nearing completion of a 60-second DRTV spot promoting the product. The goal of the ad is to broaden awareness of the cat box, drive its placement at retail and increase customer acquisition.
The company now runs five-minute and 60-second spots. Later this month, the new ad will replace the current 60-second version. Its goal is to run the ads in primetime.
“The one we had was a different message,” said Steven Yampolsky, president of Petnovations. “Primetime has more people, but you need to get the attention. We’re still going to run a five-minute version of the original creative, but we needed something for the primetime market.”
In the spot, cat owners — the ad’s target demographic — toss traditional catboxes out of their windows. One pet owner goes to the CatGenie Web site, with a call to action for consumers to do likewise.
Suite created the ads. Yampolsky said on September 16 that he expects the commercial to be completed “within a week,” and that the company’s media buyers are picking outlets to air it nationally.
Petnovations is also using out-of-home ads and pop-up stores, at which the product is directly sold, in its marketing of the CatGenie.
“The idea of having a place where you can come see it helps really reinforce our TV ads,” Yampolsky said.
