YuMOVE
Nominated for best use of celebrity at the PR Week Awards 2020
ABOUT THE PROJECT
YuMOVE: Peter Purvis Barks Back
YuMOVE is the UK’s leading veterinary pet joint supplement brand, but despite incredible growth over the last few years, the business still felt like it was a well kept secret. So, Visible was tasked with driving a step-change in awareness and creating fame and cultural relevance in the run up to and during Crufts, not an easy task when every related dog brand had the same objective!
We knew we needed to be bold and disruptive but that we had to articulate the brand proposition ‘keeping pets active for life’ with authenticity. So when we spotted that Peter Purves, the voice of Crufts and legendary presenter, had been sacked by Channel 4 (allegedly due to his age) and that broadcasters and media were up in arms, we saw a golden opportunity to hi-jack the news agenda, hire him for YuMOVE and ‘own’ Crufts. And what a campaign it was! A ‘pawfect’ celebrity pairing!
For the hi-jack to work and generate maximum impact it needed a brilliantly executed media strategy and activation plan to allow the story to evolve. Timing was crucial and every beat of the campaign masterfully orchestrated.
A clever initial story titled ‘life in the old dog get’ got tongues wagging about YuMOVE bringing Peter back to Cruft’s and hiring him as their brand ambassador.
Step two was to create a serious story about looking after dogs as they get old, so they remain active for longer – Peter is of course 81 and yes excuse the pun! And finally, we elevated YuMOVE’s visibility at Cruft’s by using Peter as our roving reporter – much to Channel 4’s annoyance.
The results were incredible:
Piers Morgan got behind the ‘bring back Peter Purves’ campaign
PR impressions across print, digital and broadcast exceeded 200 million with stella pieces including a double page spread in The Telegraph and print coverage in The Sun, The Mirror, The Daily Star and The Express
Over 160,000 people visited YuMOVE at Crufts with queues around the block to meet Peter
25% increase in sales at Crufts compared to 2019
Sales spikes in YuMOVE products attributed to PR and media campaigning
This was YuMOVE’s most successful PR campaign – until Visible launched the second campaign! Woof woof
200M
impressions across print,
digital and broadcast media
+ support from Piers Morgan!
160k+
visitors to YuMOVE at Crufts
with queues around the block
to meet Peter
25%
increase in sales at Crufts + e-commerce following
the campaign