BE A BETTER
BIRD PARENT.
Bird toys are outdated & unsafe, so we encouraged pet stores, vets, & consumers through a 1950s-inspired campaign to buy toys for the 21st century.
*THIS IS A SPECULATIVE CAMPAIGN
Rough sketch of the Grass & Root campaign's visual design.
Parenting techniques from the early 1900s are ill-informed by modern standards, & the same holds true for the toys children played with. Lead paint & carcinogenic flame retardants were the norm, not the exception, & only through retrospection can we see the cracks that were always there but were, at the time, mistaken for craggy shadows.
Which brings us to pet birds. While there are many parts of raising a parrot that stand to be improved, Grass & Root focuses on how outdated & downright dangerous the majority of bird toys are. Think bells with clappers that can trap beaks, & toxic glues, paints, & plastics that can cause serious illness.
We set out to present pet owners a black mirror, funny at first, but uncomfortably true the longer it’s observed.
DEVELOPMENT
Using Grass & Root’s slogan “making bird toys for the 21st century”, we created visuals & copy that harkened back to mid-century America & the boom of child-raising tips, fitted neatly with modern marketing knowhow & enough pep to balance out the seriousness of the campaign.
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Pet stores & hospitals in Grass & Root’s CRM were given informational brochures on being a better bird parent, with new & returning customers encouraged to take a copy. This was supplemented by marketing everywhere a bird owner viewed content, including pre-roll video ads, digital display ads, & social posts that depicted upset, anthropomorphic birds with oblivious 1950s parents. The goal was not just to encourage bird owners to buy from Grass & Root, but to have the newly educated indirectly pressure pet stores to increase their reorder size.
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Influencers were the final ace up our sleeve. We provided them with complimentary Grass & Root kits, themed with 1950s packaging design & a personalized letter that lauded them as exceptional pet parents, with a QR code in the box that led to an influencer-exclusive 5-minute PSA on being a better bird owner.
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Beyond providing the bird community with free merch, our intent was to create a compelling-enough narrative through the unboxing experience to warrant authentic videos on Grass & Root, &, ultimately, increased brand awareness.
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More than any other campaign in our portfolio, this flies beyond us. Birds can talk, sure, but they can’t speak up for themselves; we’re glad to have presented a campaign that sparked change for animal welfare, no matter how much.
MESSAGING
BE A BETTER BIRD PARENT: Bird owners want to provide the best life for their pets. This campaign shows that, while many ways of thinking are as outdated as 1950s parenting tips, providing a parrot with safe, sustainable toys is an actionable step in the right direction.
ASSETS
Bird toys are stuck in the 20th century, so our campaign worked with a mid-century design style to visually depict how outdated (& dangerous) they can be.
We’re dealing with serious subject matter but still needed period-appropriate typefaces, so we paired Pulpo with the serif Tuna for 1950s-editorial-inspired copy that softly commands an authoritative tone.
Each color was inspired by a different species of household parrot, with browns, greens, yellows, reds, & tans filling up our box of crayons. Once we’d plucked a feather with the right hue, we passed it through our atomic-era-ometer to construct a palette more in-tune with mid-century sensibilities.
Birds are anthropomorphized with a subtle “paper doll” effect, using interchangeable heads & bodies, & are accompanied by toys straight out of a 1950s advert.
Background elements use blocky, sharp edges with delineating lines of variable width. The colors took the lead, permitting sparse strokes only when necessary to fill in the gaps, like the buttons on a sofa or the folds of a dress. This applied to the human design, too, although these characters used softer shapes when possible.
CHANNELS
DIRECT (EMAIL)
PRINT (BROCHURES)
SOCIAL
DIGITAL (DISPLAY)
INFLUENCER (KIT INSERT & VIDEO)
TRANSCRIPT: “Hello, I’m Roger Clark. On behalf of Grass & Root Bird Toys, thank you for participating in our “Better Bird Parent” program!
The following film shows two scenarios all-too familiar with first-time bird owners. When you’re done watching, keep opening your bird parent kit. I know you’ll like what’s inside.
Have a great day, & enjoy the film.”
VIDEO (ADS & ORGANIC)
SPOT #1: Birthday Bell (30 seconds)
Applause as a bird sits in front of a big cake. A woman holds a big bell with a bow on top.
FRIEND
Happy birthday, Kiwi! Guess what I got!
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PARENT
Another giant bell: just what she wanted!
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Freeze. NARRATOR slowly walks on screen.
NARRATOR
Bells have clappers that can trap & injure beaks. Leave a bird alone with one for too long, & that might be the last time you see them alive.
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Slogan appears.
NARRATOR
Grass & Root: We make bird toys for the 21st century.
SPOT #2: Too Many Colors (30 seconds)
A couple looks at a magazine, with a layout that mimics a computer screen.
PARENT 1
Look, dear! Why, this bird toy’s got every color of the rainbow!
PARENT 2
That one looks like a children’s toy - what a spoiled parrot!
Freeze. NARRATOR slowly walks on screen.
NARRATOR
Brightly-colored bird toys often contain toxic chemicals. Eat too much paint, & you’ll have to take them to the vet. Wait too long, & it’ll be a different kind of visit.”
Slogan appears.
NARRATOR
Grass & Root: We make bird toys for the 21st century.
SPOT #3: What’s In A Name? (30 seconds)
An ad plays on TV.
TELEVISION COMMERCIAL
♫ Super Shoelace Wonderland: Birds love plastic! ♫
Sitting on the couch, a man turns to his wife.
PARENT
Now, honey, there’s no way that could be bad for our bird. Did you hear what it was called?
Freeze. NARRATOR slowly walks on screen.
NARRATOR
Plastics are never safe for birds. Eat too much, & you’ll have to take them to the vet. Wait too long, & it’ll be a different kind of visit.
Slogan appears.
NARRATOR
Grass & Root: We make bird toys for the 21st century.
RESULTS
The following results only include data from the three-month run of the campaign.
Out of the 200 influencers who received a kit, 95% created a video that was at least 10 minutes long. 47% received at least 100,000 views on their video, & 24% received at least 500,000 views. 12% of all sales came from an affiliate link.
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Our YouTube ads were skipped 67% less than other ads of similar length. The average Grass & Root video ad during this campaign had a clickthrough rate (CTR) of 7%.
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Subscriptions to Grass & Root’s Instagram page rose by 23,243 followers. Mentions of the brand on Instagram rose from an average of 2/week to an average of 124/week.
Organic first-time website visitors rose from an average of 200/week to 1000/week, with the rate of item purchase conversion event frequency increasing from a pre-campaign average of 12% to a campaign average of 48%.
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Pet shops & veterinarians that requested more brochures were more likely to make a larger reorder. 64% of brochure requesters made a purchase that was at least 30% higher than their previous, while only 23% of non-brochure requesters did the same.
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Total overall revenue increased by 49%.
