The Living Ad: How Pedigree Made Its Media Budget Do the Mission
Pedigree used machine learning to turn shelter photos into ad-ready images, then connected those images to live adoption data so every digital and outdoor ad showed a real, nearby dog still waiting for a home. When the dog was adopted, the ad updated automatically. The product campaign and the cause became the same thing. This is one of the mechanisms in jugnu's Kosh.
The tension it resolves
Pedigree had to choose between spending its media budget on product promotion and spending it on its stated mission of ending dog homelessness, Adoptable made those the same thing.
The challenge it solved for Pedigree (Mars): How do we make our existing media spend directly drive the social mission we claim to stand for, rather than running a separate cause campaign alongside our product advertising?
The mechanism
A live data layer connects real-world adoption status to advertising inventory, so each ad impression features a specific dog who still needs a home, and the creative updates automatically when reality changes.
Pedigree, with Colenso BBDO Auckland and Nexus Studios, built a bespoke machine-learning model that transforms amateur shelter-staff photos of real dogs into studio-quality images. Those images are plugged dynamically into Pedigree's digital and out-of-home ads, geo-targeted to show viewers a dog available at their nearest shelter. When a dog is adopted, it is automatically swapped out of rotation and replaced by the next dog in need.
The proof
The campaign won the Cannes Lions 2024 Outdoor Grand Prix, plus Gold and Bronze in Direct and Silver in Creative Business Transformation, with evidence of increased shelter profile traffic and adoption likelihood among viewers.
Where this applies in India
This principle is available right now for food-rescue platforms whose app could show today's actual surplus meals on nearby digital screens, updating as stock runs out. It works equally well for cow-shelter or stray-animal NGOs that partner with pet food or veterinary brands, turning media into a live adoption board. And any employment platform working with daily-wage or gig workers could run ads that feature real open roles from nearby employers, refreshing as positions are filled.
FAQ
What is the Adoptable pattern?
A live data layer connects real-world adoption status to advertising inventory, so each ad impression features a specific dog who still needs a home, and the creative updates automatically when reality changes.
Which brand proved it works?
Pedigree (Mars), in pet care / fmcg (Global). The campaign won the Cannes Lions 2024 Outdoor Grand Prix, plus Gold and Bronze in Direct and Silver in Creative Business Transformation, with evidence of increased shelter profile traffic and adoption likelihood among viewers. jugnu's Kosh tracks 344 such patterns across Indian and global brands.
How do I apply this to my brand?
Run your brand challenge through jugnu. It diagnoses the tension underneath your problem, checks whether this pattern fits it, and builds ideas on the patterns that do.
This is the story. Every Kosh card also carries a transfer layer: the consumer insight underneath, the principle that moves across categories, and the boundary conditions where it breaks. jugnu applies that layer to your brand when it builds ideas.
Wondering if this pattern fits your challenge? Run it through jugnu and find out.
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