Background

With only 3% of the total cat food market, SHEBA® was practically unknown in the US.

So when we were tasked with launching Gravy Indulgence Entrees on social, with one single proof point - 70% gravy, we knew success would depend on punching above our weight. 

We’d need to steal attention from our bigger spending, more established competitors.

But with a fractional 8% share of online voice, a miniscule social following, and far less total spend than our competitors, it made it difficult to capture the attention of an audience naturally suspicious of branded content.

We had to find an unexpected and entertaining way to show our audience that SHEBA® Gravy Indulgence is ‘WHAT CATS WANT™.

Challenge

SHEBA®, a small cat food brand in the US, set out to launch a new ‘extra-gravy’ product, GRAVY INDULGENCE™, in a way that could compete with goliaths like Fancy Feast, without their budgets or awareness. GRAVY INDULGENCE™ is 70% gravy, and cats freaking LOVE gravy. In fact, it’s one of the most influential parts of product liking, so with more gravy than most, SHEBA® was sure to deliver higher levels of cat satisfaction. With this, enjoyment had to sit at the heart of the launch campaign and deliver against our brand line ‘WHAT CATS WANT™’.

Solution

We knew we couldn’t compete with big brands’ traditional show-and-tell approach. Instead, we needed to prove SHEBA®’s extra-gravy product was more delicious than anything else on the market.

So rather than telling people cats love gravy, we showed them through proof. In a world-first, we turned a simple product demonstration into a sporting spectacle. The Gravy Race saw eight of the internet’s biggest cat influencers go head-to-head in a knockout tournament to see who could lick a line of SHEBA® GRAVY INDULGENCE™ the fastest, proving it is the gravy cats love most.

Timed to coincide with America’s March Madness, we piggy-backed on the nation’s most-watched basketball tournament, which draws tens of millions of viewers each year. We created our own high-tension bracket, just as unpredictable, but starring cats and gravy instead of hoops, tapping into the same competitive energy that fuels the tournament.

To cement the sporting credentials and attract fans beyond cat lovers, the event was headlined by 2022 Sportscaster of the Year Ian Eagle. With eight superstar cats and a combined following of nearly 48 million, their communities were pitched against one another, accelerating engagement and supercharging organic reach.

By exploding a simple feline truth, that cats are avid lickers who love gravy, we transformed a product demo into an epic, culture-hijacking competition that got cat parents engaging with a new product launch like never before.

Results

We created gravy flavoured shockwaves by turning a simple product demo into a sports tournament. Enter the world’s first Gravy Race, bringing together 8 of the world’s most famous cats to set the internet alight and sweep the nation, with the final broadcast live at Times Square.

The Gravy Race was watched by over 16.5 million people organically, beating March Madness average viewership, tripled our online share of voice, became the most talked about cat brand on the internet, and drove over 50% more value sales than predicted by the end of year 1.