Tasty food made from quality ingredients. Most of us wouldn’t accept anything less. Our poor pets, on the other hand, are often left staring at a bowl of dry, processed food while we dine like kings at the dinner table. No wonder they put their heads in our laps in the hope of a bite.
Wild Oz believes that dogs and cats should dine like kings too.
The brand specialises in locally sourced, wild harvested, human-grade meat in pet-sized portions. You can serve your four-legged friend the game meat that, in another world, they might track down in nature themselves – kangaroo, wild boar, venison, rabbit – minus the hassle of the hunt.
As a brand, Wild Oz sat on a strong foundation. Part of Macro Group, the global leader in kangaroo meat, it had invested in a range of successful paid ad and email marketing strategies.
But there was a big missing piece: organic content.
The aim
Ads help people discover you. But people rarely purchase pet food after seeing a single ad. Trust is the defining factor in the decision to buy. Pet owners research, compare, and look for product demos, feeding tips, and real customers sharing real experiences.
That’s where organic content comes in. It was something Wild Oz had never really focused on, and without an organic social media strategy, uploads were sporadic and inconsistent. They failed to instil confidence in potential buyers who were thinking about feeding Fido fancy food.
So NINKI got a call.
The aim was to transform Wild Oz’s social media strategy from scattergun to structured, specifically in the middle of the funnel, when pet owners were considering their options. Objectives included:
- Using organic content and influencer partnerships to expand Wild Oz’s reach.
- Presenting the brand as trustworthy and credible.
- Generating social proof through user-generated content (UGC).
- Increasing brand engagement amongst followers and non-followers.
- Creating a sustainable content ecosystem that would grow the brand long-term.
The approach
NINKI developed an organic content strategy that would expose Wild Oz to new sets of eyes, translate views into engagement, and ultimately convert browsers to buyers.
The polished ads that had previously defined Wild Oz’s marketing were traded for something more authentic and relatable.
The brand also enjoyed the benefit of a social media cheat code: cute pets are algorithmic jet fuel. We recognised this fact, and we leaned right into it.
UGC & creator management
Our team worked with UGC creators who produced content that featured real pets, in real settings, enjoying the food as they naturally would.
We took care of everything so all Wild Oz had to do was give the thumbs up. We sourced and vetted the creators. We negotiated the partnerships. We briefed the influencers on what we needed. We managed the output.
The result? As effective as it was cute (I mean look at this for goodness’ sake).
Organic social media management
Quality content isn’t enough. A successful social media account needs to be actively managed. We dialled up the engagement and grew the follower count by:
- Writing engaging, evocative captions and scheduling the content drop at key times.
- Engaging with followers by replying to their comments and DMs.
- Posting consistently to ensure Wild Oz was always in followers’ feeds and top of mind.
- Nudging the audience to the checkout by featuring marketing promos.
Content designed for ecommerce
The strategy focused on making the product as visible to as many pet owners as possible, serving them real stories, feeding inspo and lifestyle-led pet content.
Rather than going the hard sell, the content aimed to make the brand feel familiar and trustworthy to potential customers, giving them the confidence to make a first purchase – at which point the product would do the talking.
The results
A quality product + cute pets might sound like an automatic marketing home run, but as Wild Oz themselves had already discovered, the combination is only magic if it’s backed by smart strategy.
Our plan proved exactly that.
Over six months Wild Oz racked up over 4.5 million views on Facebook, more than doubling the numbers of the previous period. 93.2% of those views came from non-followers, which meant the brand was accessing millions of new eyes without spending a brass razoo on advertising.
The most recent month on Instagram delivered 350,000+ views – equivalent to over 2 million views when extrapolated to the same six-month period – 81.1% of which came from non-followers.
As a result, Wild Oz is now making its way into more food bowls than ever before. This also creates a positive feedback loop in which more happy pooches and kitties create more UGC.
And with NINKI on the case, the brand will ensure that none of that social media gold will go to waste.
Photography Credit: Jodi Nash
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