Are animals better brand ambassadors than humans?

Brands are continuously looking to find a breakthrough with their advertisements and marketing campaigns. Creativity is on its peak, from children acting as adults to roosters talking! Social Samosa looks back upon some of the interesting campaigns featuring animal brand ambassadors that garnered millions of views and were a huge success.

The new Honda Jazz recently came out with its new advertisement starring a cat –yes, a cat and not a celebrity and it has proved to be a super hit for the brand. The video has had a staggering viewership of 27 million in just a day! Take a look:

This isn't the first time an animal has managed to work its charm. Remember Geico's award winning YouTube pre-roll commercial that literally proved to be unskippable. Users just couldn't stop seeing the oh so adorable dogs creating havoc in different situations.

The success of animals in reaching out to human consumers has been massive. Not to mention, wildly tried and tested. Back in 2016, Mercedes roped in the globally popular dog influencer (yes, you read it correct) Loki, The Wolfdog. The campaign witnessed, Loki with his owner Lund driving in a Merc through snow scaped lands, making for some awe-adorable visuals of the dog flapping in snow.

For the latecomers, Loki, The Wolfdog has 1.8 million followers on Instagram.

In fact Petfluencers are becoming a brand favourite, so to speak. Especially for Auto brands. Fiat Blackjack too took an animal ambassador route with their 'Reveal your dark side' campaign featuring polar bears.

An Indian example for successful animal ambassador campaigns would be the much loved Vodafone Pug. First created in 2003, for the then Hutch telecom by Ogilvy & Mather's Mahesh V Rao and Rajeev Rao, Cheeka (the pug) following around the little boy everywhere he went was to signify the long lasting reach of the network. A huge success, Pug still continue to be Vodafone mascot to great extent.

This led us to delve into other successful brand commercials starring animals. Check them out:

1. Vivo (21 million)

2. Pedigree (9.8 million)

3. Vodafone (27 million)

4. Budweiser (4.7 million)

Also Read: Best YouTube Pre-Roll campaigns for #MondayMotivation

5. Cadbury (9.2 million)

6. Mercedes Benz (13.3 million)

7. Cravendale (more than 8 million across)

8. Mentos India (2.1 mllion)

9. Anchor Butter (more than 2.1 million)

10. Volkswagen (1.8 million)

With the choice of brand ambassadors being questioned in this aware consumer age, creative brand ambassadors manage to convey a stronger and clearer message. Petfluencers or animal ambassadors could be the new fad?