Johnson’s 100-year birthday & pet shop window display competition
Founded in 1921 by Arthur Guy Johnson, Johnson’s Veterinary Products are a Birmingham-based pet care brand that specialise in over the counter pet medicine, shampoo and treatments. Their products can be found through online retailers such as Pets at Home and Viovet as well as most independently owned pet shops across the UK.
What we achieved for Johnson's
Website traffic up 40%
Facebook following up 29.4%
15 entries in pet shop window display competition
10 pieces of coverage prior launch day
Increased product sales
Campaign goals
On July 31st Johnson’s Veterinary Products celebrated its 100th year in business. Eager to use this important milestone as an opportunity to kickstart their digital growth and brand equity, the Johnson’s team reached out to Work PR for our digital marketing, PR and project planning expertise. Read on to find out more about the marketing project that we delivered for Johnson’s 100-year birthday and the positive outcomes that we achieved.
- Use the birthday to increase Johnson’s brand equity in competitive pet care market for B2C audience (I.e. pet owners).
- Strengthen relationship with current B2B customers (pet shops), leading to larger wholesale orders in the future.
- Increase social media followers, especially on Facebook where Johnson’s target audience is most active.
- Increase traffic to Johnson's website.
Campaign key messaging
‘Caring for the nation’s pets for 100 years.’
This campaign messaging was consistently used across our print designs and online collateral to remind audiences of Johnson’s Veterinary Products well-established, British heritage brand status.
It also helped strengthen the promotion of the birthday charity fundraiser (where a portion of in-store product sales made in the week of Johnson’s birthday went to one of five animal charities), as it was important for Johnson’s that they asserted their position as an ethical company who put the interests of animals before profit.
'For our 100th birthday we are giving pet shops something back.’
Johnson’s have long maintained close relationships with the pet shops that sell their products, so knew firsthand the struggles small, independent stores had faced during the pandemic. It was a struggle that their story could relate to, as Johnson’s founder Arthur Guy Johnson had faced similar hardships when trying to launch his business during the first world war over a century ago.
Through their blog series, we shared the story of Johnson’s earlier struggles to create an emotional connection with their audience prior to announcing the competition for pet shops. The competition asked pet shops to join in with the birthday celebrations through a shop window display, that could then be shared through social media.
The best window displays would then be rewarded with experience day vouchers so that the whole pet shop team could plan a fun day out of their choosing.
What Work PR did for Johnson’s 100th year birthday
Work PR delivered a full marketing and PR project on Johnson’s behalf, overseeing everything from the planning stage to the implementation of the campaign. Some of the activities we carried out included:
- Full scale project management and strategy development
- PR
- Social Media
- Website
- Blog & Content
- Print design
- Animations
Read on for further explanations of what each of these activities involved.
Project Management & Strategy
After our first meeting with Johnson’s, we conducted a full marketing report, which included:
- SWOT, PEST and competitor analyses
- A profile of the campaign’s intended target audience
- Key messaging and campaign objectives
- KPI’s and target goals
- Details of the competition and how we were going to promote it
- Social media graphic samples
- A schedule of the campaign activities planned over the next few months, including blog content
This report helped keep the process of the project transparent and easy for the client to follow. It also notified them of campaign risks and external factors that could impact the performance e.g. impact of COVID on small businesses.
PR
We distributed several national and regional press releases both prior and post-event, letting wider media and specialist trade magazines know about the 100th birthday milestone and the activities Johnson’s were planning on the day.
Social Media
We took over social media duties four months prior to the event, increasing the posting frequency and diversifying the content so that Johnson’s social media presence offered more to its audience than just company updates.
Website
On Johnson’s existing website we built pages highlighting the 100th year birthday and for the pet shop competition. The homepage was regularly updated with new animations and slides to encourage more clicks to the blogs, competition and 100 years heritage pages.
Blogs
New blogs were added every week leading up to the campaign, covering a broad range of subjects including Johnson’s history, interviews with some of Johnson’s key people and the benefitting charities from the fundraiser.
Print design
From concept to delivery, we created several print designed pieces throughout the course of the campaign, including leaflets, double spread page magazines ads, and printable collateral such as bunting, party hats and posters for pet shop competition use.
Animation
Animations were created for both the website and social media, including a homepage animation that launched on the birthday and sticker GIFs for their audience to use on Instagram stories.
What the 100 years campaign achieved for Johnson’s Veterinary Products
- In the month leading up to Johnson’s birthday website traffic rose by 40%. Website sessions also increased by 47%.
- Johnson’s Facebook following grew by 29.4% - a huge growth for the brand considering previous four-month growth sat at just 4.28%.
- A total of 15 pet shops across the UK participated in the window shop display competition, which was significantly higher than our initial target of 5 pet shops. The campaign messaging of ‘giving back to pet shops’ has also helped strengthen Johnson’s relationship with their B2B customers, with many showing interest in the next video campaign series that we will be running.
- Increased product sales on the birthday and in the weeks following the campaign
- Media coverage from several regional newspapers and pet industry trade magazines – both prior and post event.
Need digital marketing help? Here’s what Work PR can do for you
Need help with your digital marketing or got a project in mind?
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Get in touch today by dropping us an email or giving us a call at 0121 236 3985, and we’ll be happy to discuss how we can help you transform your business.