During their newest product rollout, GREENIES™ used AI to give the power of feedback to the most important consumers: the dogs.

Despite all the ways that advertisers are able to reach customers, it’s difficult to beat the value of a good, old-fashioned review. At the point of purchase, someone else’s words can make a big difference—whether it’s about the way something tastes, fits, works, or stands the test of time. Of course, even reviews have their limitations ... or they did.

When it comes to products for our pets, consumers typically have to go the traditional route, basing their purchase off ingredients and the way our fur babies respond to the product itself. But with developing technology, some very good participants, and a cheeky idea specially developed for Mars Petcare and the GREENIES™ team, our four-legged friends are getting in on the review game. And while technology to actually read dogs’ minds does not exist (we can dream), Amazon and the GREENIES™ brand were still able to work with generative AI technology to bring the fantasy to life.

Working with the Amazon Ads Brand Innovation Lab, the GREENIES™ brand wanted to create awareness around their new Smart Essentials dog food launch. Having already established their place in the market as a well-known pet dental care and treats brand, the GREENIES™ team knew that their approach to how they highlighted their Smart Essentials dog food needed to be as smart, fun, and differentiating as the brand itself. With strong brand recognition, the brand hoped to capitalize on their already-established reputation as a trusted snack brand for pets. In a highly competitive grocery space, the brand still wanted to push boundaries in a way that captured the larger industry’s attention. That’s where the idea for the GREENIES™ Dog Interpreter comes in.

The GREENIES™ team didn’t want to do a traditional TV commercial; they wanted to do something more interactive, which is how Amazon Ads came up with the idea that the dogs would talk—an idea that took a close collaboration to ensure that the brand voice dovetailed seamlessly with, well, the “voice” of a dog.

Using real-time generative AI and Rekognition technology—a first for the Brand Innovation Lab—the GREENIES™ brand and Amazon developed a campaign that allows customers to open the Amazon app and scan the dogs while they eat GREENIES™ dog food. While eating, the app “interprets” the dog’s actions—whether that be a few extra tail wags or a mad rush of the tippy-tappies—and generates a “review,” taking the power from the pet parents and putting it into the ... well ... paws of the consumer.

“We had a couple conversations about ideas of how to support this product launch, and Amazon came up with this fun, quirky one where dogs write reviews,” says Ashley Ornellas, senior activation manager at Mars. With Smart Essentials dog food in development for three years, Mars wanted to ensure the rollout was one that fit the brand as perfectly as the product itself. “I think all of us were just hooked,” says Ornellas. “It’s unique and different, and obviously leveraged technology we hadn’t had before. I think it got everyone excited.”

The campaign created personas that help give the furry reviewers a fun, whimsical personality, while also weaving in information about the brand’s science-backed nutrition, which speaks to the vital six components of dog health. The Amazon-created feedback from the furry “reviewers” lived on the custom Brand Store page on Amazon. To do that, the Amazon Ads team manually wrote possible responses and then used the generative AI with content guardrails to modify the dog’s “feedback” each time, in a way that was the right tone for the brand.

In addition to the rollout of the campaign on the Amazon app, the team also developed three custom videos that live on the Brand Store, Streaming TV, Online Video Ads, and Prime Video. Other Amazon touchpoints include audio ads and Amazon DSP media. Working in concert together, each of these pieces created additional touchpoints for consumers, encouraging them to check out the dog review campaign and learn more about the new Smart Essentials dog food. Of course, as exciting as the launch was for Mars Petcare, everyone involved was thrilled to try the review scanner out on their own dog children.

“It was very cool to send it to family and friends and see what their dogs were saying—to see what my own dog was saying,” says McKenzie Beaver, GREENIES™ brand manager at Mars. The campaign caught the eye of Mars Petcare colleagues as well. “Canada is six months behind us in their launch, and they proactively reached out and asked, ‘How can we do this? How can we steal this and replicate?’ Getting that feedback from other markets and marketers in other countries was exciting.”

While there are presumably (hopefully) computer scientists at work, developing technology that allows us all to communicate with our pets, the GREENIES™ brand is doing the work to make sure the food provided for them is of the highest quality, encouraging the nonverbal cues that every dog owner is fluent in: quick-eating, lip-licking, and nuzzles of approval. And with the GREENIES™ Dog Interpreter translating those cues into human language, the old adage is disproven again: You can teach an old dog new tricks.