This past January, Novartis Animal Health asked their agency, Colle+McVoy, to create a unique way to capture the attention of veterinarians attending the 2009 North American Veterinary Conference (NAVC). They gave Colle+McVoy the mission of finding a way to entertain conference attendees outside of standard conference activities and encourage them to interact with the Novartis brand.
Colle+McVoy decided to produce an evolution of a video that they had created for Novartis in 2007, “Larry and Friends.” The video featured a mischievous dog named Larry and provided an excellent platform for telling a deeper story about the animal health industry, highlighting the meaningful bond that exists between pets and their owners.
The new video placed Larry inside of Vetropolis, an imaginary city solely related to veterinarians and the animal health industry. In Vetropolis, Larry notices that every other dog has a job, such as show dogs and rescue dogs, and he starts to feel badly about his lack of a purpose in life. Then Larry meets a little boy and they become instant friends, giving Larry the meaning he has been missing in his life.
The video was paired with an onsite game at NAVC, for which attendees were provided with a map of Vetropolis and instructed to find hidden images within the map. Once all images had been found, they could submit the map at the Novartis tradeshow booth to win prizes, including a $5,000 travel voucher. The Vetropolis game and video were a huge success, helping to drive over 70% of conference attendees to the Novartis booth.
