Why our canine friends work perfectly in adverts
As a leading UK modelling agency, Models Direct are keen to hear from any animal-owners eager to take the plunge and promote their pets in various forms of modelling channels. Animals have several advertising qualities that humans simply can’t compete with. It’s this reason that clients are always on the lookout for incomparable animals to market their business. In this blog we’ll take a quick look at the qualities that make dogs the ideal marketing tool.
The RSPCA estimates that 12 million households (about 45%) in the UK have pets. Dog ownership is the most popular, with 9 million pooches in the UK. This in itself is a powerful advertising tool. The sheer number of dogs means that advertising viewers will relate to dogs. If you’re not a “dog person”, then no matter – companies value the fact that most of the UK population can at least relate to dogs.
As a “faithful friend”, dogs are often used to portray trust. Think of the famous St. Bernard coming to the aid of a mountaineer, carrying a much-needed brandy in a small barrel around its neck. Though this is far from common, viewers can’t imagine any other animal replicating the scene. Dogs are obedient and largely keen to please their owners, so companies often use an assortment of breeds to represent fidelity. Could your dog be useful in similar campaigns and become a dog model?
Dogs pull at our heart-strings. Generally, we love dogs. They stir our emotions, and are highly effective in promoting a variety of products. Dogs can also be easily-trained (see previous Models Direct blogs). With a little bit of time and dedication, your beloved pooch could be trained to star in memorable adverts, either on screen or photographed to star in print adverts.
All companies want their adverts to be memorable – after all, that is the purpose of advertising. What’s the point in having a fantastic product if the audience forgets it after a few minutes? This is where dogs are especially useful, serving to get the attention of the potential customer. Quite often, an advert involving an animal will go “viral”, increasing the advert’s efficiency. A lot of dog adverts are either “cute” or “funny”, which go a long way to be well-remembered. Sure, there are plenty of memorable adverts involving neither humans nor animals, but the animal-factor is undeniably a major factor in successful marketing.
Dogs are versatile, too. If a company doesn’t want cute or funny, they may want a canine to display aggressiveness – a good example is a security company advertising anti-burglar locks. For dainty, almost feminine products, a small inoffensive dog breed to complement the advertising campaign would work nicely – think Chihuahua or Yorkshire Terrier.
Dogs can also mimic human emotions like no other animal. When your dog looks like he’s smiling whilst sticking out his tongue, or simply seems “happy”, advertisers may want to use him in their marketing tools. Has your dog got protruding eyebrows that convey frowning, or wonderfully droopy eyes that convey sadness? These little characteristics could see your dog enjoying the limelight on screen, so don’t take them for granted.
