Whiskas loCATor

Ogency: Creative, Management JAM: Digital CITIX: OOH Mars: Client

Local Background Due to the war in Ukraine, Mars Eurasia had to urgently shift product sourcing from Russia to Europe.The new products came in a temporary technical pack design, without the iconic Whiskas cat. This confused consumers. They thought the new Whiskas packs were fake. Trust fell, sales dropped, and the brand lost almost HALF of its MARKET SHARE.  With NO MEDIA BUDGET and only $20,000, we had to launch a campaign that could remind people about Whiskas, deliver reach and organic impressions. Since we were working hard to bring back the original pack design, it made no sense to promote the temporary catless pack. Instead, we turned the missing cat into the core idea and created a campaign with a strong social response. Strategy The issue of runaway cats had never been addressed in brand communication, even though statistics show that cats run away far more often than dogs. Brands are afraid to address this issue because of the bad statistics. Unlike dogs, runaway cats rarely seek human contact; they hide in basements and often become victims of stray dogs, cruelty, or animal control services. With our cat gone from the pack, we studied the problem of lost cats in Kazakhstan:  - 36% of cats run away at least once.  - shelters are overcrowded, and animal control services kill animals on the street.  - 62% of runaway cats never return.  Finding a pet fast can mean saving its life. In Kazakhstan, the only ways to search for a missing cat were printed posters (removed by municipal services) and online forums visited by people who had already lost a pet. While Whiskas® regularly runs adoption campaigns, it had never addressed runaway pets — even though the issue is highly relevant for cat owners. 84% of cat owners in Kazakhstan worry about their pet running away or have already experienced it. Kazakhstan isn’t like Istanbul — street cats are rare. When cat owners see a home cat on the street, they feel a strong urge to help it get home. We turned this instinct into a key driver of long-term engagement with the brand across multiple channels. Partners and Budget !!! The problem of runaway cats resonated with all pet owners, including executives of large organizations. We instantly gained the support of partners: the leading DOOH operator, the largest retail chain, and a mapping service. With less than $20,000, we received huge support in media, retail, and digital production — completely free. Local Solutions The packaging problem was a completely local, country-specific situation. The insight was new for cat food brands, and the idea went against strict Whiskas global brand book. But the head office liked it so much that they let Kazakhstan break the rules and feature any cat breed in the campaign (even ones like our competitors’). Idea and Execution When the Whiskas cat disappeared from the packaging, instead of explaining it in advertising, we made the disappearance real: our cat had “run away.” Given how serious the runaway-cat problem is, we chose to bend our strict brand guidelines and give up our “sacred” place to anyone who needed to be found and saved, regardless of breed or appearance. Whiskas® loCATor. A cat rescue ecosystem. When an owner notices their cat is missing, they send a photos to a Telegram chatbot mini-app (one of the top messengers in Kazakhstan).  Within a minute, the report goes through an AI pipeline: photo submitted with the escape location → AI moderation → AI background cutout → integration into video → calculation of the cat’s potential roaming area → geo-targeted distribution across DOOH, retail media, taxi displays, and our Smart TV app that turned partner screens into media surfaces in vet clinics, cafés, local shops, dental clinics, and pet stores. We gave people a simple tool to instantly alert the owner of a lost pet. We turned every city resident into a rescuer: see a cat, send its photo to the chatbot — AI will identify it and notify the owner of its location. Result - 248 cats saved in 5 months - Sales +28% median uplift, with a peak of +55.6% (ACNielsen verified). - A new active community of 23,000+ cat owners (we stay in touch with them via Telegram). - $0 media budget: DOOH, retail media, PR, and partner locations - 19.000.000+ DOOH impressions - 31.000.000+ Digital impressions (in a country with a population of 20 million) - 160+ media & bloggers support - 100% organic reach - DOOH partner: +37% demand for geo-targeted-campaigns In early autumn 2025, the case gained strong visibility at international festivals and started a trend across Europe and the US: tech-driven pet search campaigns in advertising, using data crowdsourcing and outdoor media. And even after we restored the familiar packaging at the new factory, we kept saving lives and building bridges between the government, animal control services, shelters, and charity foundations.