Watch above or read below.

Matthew Burns:
This is brilliant marketing. Brilliant, brilliant, brilliant marketing. Every once in a while you run across a brand that you didn’t know. And here’s the thing that’s weird about that: even though you didn’t know about them, most of our clients aren’t known by everybody around the world. What we do is we build them to be known locally; they’re known. And sometimes they’re known for the best reasons.

And so I found The Farmer’s Dog. I am a dog lover. I’ve got three of my own. You can probably see, I think there’s one in the background there sleeping, and I’ve got one on the floor here. I emotionally got torn up by a couple of ads, and I’m going to play one in a second, but I want you to know something. This is a massive brand. They are the fastest-growing pet brand over the last decade.

They started in 2014. The owners started the company because one of the owners’ dogs had chronic digestive issues, and they realized that they could not get help. They could no longer eat kibble. It just wasn’t working for them. They needed fresh food. We know fresh food is great for dogs. We understand that. And if you were to run an advertising campaign based on that, we’re going to teach the world how you’re supposed to take care of things, the facts and the data. It’s been done and done and done, and those brands aren’t flying. This brand that does the exact same thing – they serve fresh food, food that has to be in a fridge, to dogs.

Stephen Semple:
But here’s the important thing. They’re worth $2.8 billion, and they do over a billion in sales.

Matthew Burns:
In revenue.

Stephen Semple:
And they aren’t that old.

Matthew Burns:
And they are not that old. And this is why. Watch this ad.

Stephen Semple:
The farmer’s dog, the girl’s dog, the new father’s dog, the retiree’s dog. They played so much into what pet parent are you? What dog parent are you? Well, it was both self-identification.

Matthew Burns:
Self-identification. Can I see myself if they cared so much? And if you noticed it was these slight little product placements throughout the whole thing, it was very slight, very, very tasteful. If you didn’t know, now I’ve watched it a bunch of times now, so I was watching for them. If you didn’t know, you didn’t see most of them. But these people are all taking care of their dog. All of them.

Everybody knows I’m a big F type in the room. My feelings rule me, and I’m just like, yes, yes. I have two more that I’m going to play through the course of this video. Tell me, you said you watched these ads before I did.

Stephen Semple:
I’d seen these ads before because they advertised quite heavily and still do periodically on CNBC. And I know normally people can’t recall where they… But guess what? The reason why I know it’s on CNBC is that there’s basically only two things I watch on television, CNBC and hockey. And I knew it wasn’t on hockey, so it was CNBC. Everything else is on streaming, and I know I didn’t see it on streaming because I always note specifically who’s doing streaming.

But in any case, I saw the ads. My favorite ad, I actually think, has got a power in a different way because yours was very emotional. The one that I like the best, basically what happens is you can tell that this is like a first date where a guy has brought a woman home. So she’s in his home for the first time; this hot-looking woman opens a refrigerator because again, now we can talk about how it’s fresh food. She opens a refrigerator, and she goes, “What’s this?” Now it’s fresh food that looks different because she’s asking now, “What’s this? ”

Think about the layers they’re being told here. And he goes, “Oh, it’s dog food.” She goes, “Well, that’s weird having dog food in the refrigerator.” It then cuts to him sitting on the floor in the kitchen eating his dinner and the dog’s eating its dog food. And he says to the dog, “She wasn’t right for us, was she?”

Matthew Burns:
That’s brilliant.

Stephen Semple:
Now in that moment, that connects to anybody who – their pet is important to them because they’re the person who, if they didn’t get along with the dog, are you going to date them? No, the dog’s more important.

Matthew Burns:
Correct.

Stephen Semple:
So we identified the food’s fresh in the story. We identified that it looks different, that it looks more like human food. And we identified this is for people who consider their dog one of their most important relationships. All wrapped up in a really simple story of where the punchline is: she wasn’t right for us. And not for me, for us.

Matthew Burns:
Yeah, yeah, yeah. It’s not about me, it’s about us. I’m like, so good.

Stephen Semple:
Their ads are… Because what they’re doing is they’re telling this rich story. They’re not educating. They’re just telling this rich story in this emotional way that anybody who’s a pet owner connects with.

Matthew Burns:
Correct. I mean, and so much so that I’m going to… So I’m going to play this one. This one here was once they did their Super Bowl ad. So now they built up a brand. In 2023, they did their first Super Bowl ad, and when they did their Super Bowl ad, they went from rising star to a rocket ship in revenue and sales. An absolute torrential downpour of money came their way because they did this ad. Watch.

 

Young Girl: I’ll always take care of you.
Young Girl: Hey little bear bear.
Grown Now As A Woman: Are you ready?
Grown Now As A Woman: Are you going to be a good boy?
Her Fiancé: To have and to hold from this day forward.
Grown Now As A Woman: I’m going to love you forever.

Matthew Burns:
Lifespan of a dog and all of the life transitions that it has. And here’s the thing, not all pet owners feel that way about their pets. I’m not trying to sell you that everyone does, but those that do, they care.

Stephen Semple:
What they’re speaking to is that there are people out there who care what they feed their dog. Yes. That’s their customer.

Matthew Burns:
Correct.

Stephen Semple:
And what they recognize is there’s enough of those people out there that that’s all we have to speak to. There are people.

Matthew Burns:
It’s a $50 billion pet food industry, and these guys are at one billion, which gives them a large roadmap.

Stephen Semple:
Yes. And look, maybe it taps out at five or six billion because not everybody… But the point is the industry’s big, and especially in the startup, the industry’s big enough. And in fact, what I want to do is shrink the people I’m talking to, and I just want to talk to people who care about this. Who care about their pets and care what they feed their pets. That’s it.

Matthew Burns:
They’re choosing who to lose. And then there was one ad. There’s one ad where it was super swanky, and I don’t know why it really connected with me. I did have a very old dog that we had to put down. Her name was Sophie. She was brilliant. And she didn’t have this swagger, but I wish she did. Anyway, watch this one here about an older dog. Watch.

 

Man Singing: Mister Cool. They call me cool. Because I’ve got more glide in my stride and more dip in my hip. And I wear a mean dark pair of shades. And you can’t see my eyes unless my head is bent.
Narrator: At The Farmer’s Dog, our fresh food plans help old dogs feel young again.
Man Singing: They call me cool.

Stephen Semple:
Funny thing is that one made me think of the pug in Men in Black. No, but he didn’t have the walk, but just the whole “What are you staring at?”

Matthew Burns:
No. Total swanky, doesn’t give a shit about anybody else. I’m doing this for me. This isn’t about you. Look at me. And that total hopping, the swagger this dog had hopping down the street and then dogs looking at him, the kid’s looking at him, the dude washing his car just staring him down. And then she puts the food down, and he’s happy, and he’s into it. And it’s about this food, which is the original story helping an older dog live longer and get rid of its digestive issues. But again, didn’t have to say all those things. There are no facts and features and benefits that are making people go, “Oh man, I love my dog that much too.”

Stephen Semple:
Right. If somebody wants that information, they’ll go to the website and get it.

Matthew Burns:
They’re going to find out more there. Exactly. This is brilliant marketing, brilliant, brilliant, brilliant marketing.

Stephen Semple:
Last thing I have to point out.

Matthew Burns:
I know. I know. Hang on.

Stephen Semple:
Because you and I have been ranting about this for years.

Matthew Burns:
Years.

Stephen Semple:
And finally I’m seeing somebody doing it. Finally, thank goodness. And that’s how they show a URL. How is the URL on that one?

Matthew Burns:
They have TheFarmersDog, capital T, capital F, capital D.

Stephen Semple:
How easy was that to read? What has everybody been doing? All lowercase. And you can’t freaking read it. It’s a word salad. Finally, because I’ve probably been on this rant with you for at least three years.

Matthew Burns:
Oh…

Stephen Semple:
I know it feels longer.

Matthew Burns:
Oh yeah. Every client that we bring Jay in on where we can control how the URL is, we finally get it done right. Otherwise, we have to fight for it. Congratulations to their marketing team. I actually think that they’re big enough now; they have a full in-house marketing team that’s doing a lot of things. Guys, I want to tip my hat to you. Great job. Great job. Great job. Great job.

Stephen Semple:
And I don’t care what you say about the ads. The reason why they’re successful is what they did with the URL. That’s all I’m saying.

Matthew Burns:
Sticky Sales Stories. That’s what this was all about. Guys, we’re going to stop yammering. We’re going to talk to you later. See you on the next episode.

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